Oliver Twist: Polanski's latest screen venture

Speaking on the film set in a muddy field on the edge of Prague's Barrandov studio on Monday, Polanski insisted the classic 19th century tale about a London orphan was still relevant to children today.

It is here that the narrow cobbled streets of 1850s London have been painstakingly recreated, 75 buildings in all from the redbrick shops and factories with smoking chimneys to the docklands area complete with a canal.

'In all my experiences it was one of the most interesting, if not the most interesting, films to do,' the director of films such as Rosemary's Baby," Chinatown, Tess and most recently The Pianist, told journalists.

'I wanted to make a children's film and had always loved the story of Oliver Twist. The last version, a musical which I love, was made in 1968, which is more than a generation ago and that's why I decided to film a new version,' he said.

But it was his wife, French actress Emmanuelle Seigner, who came up with the idea of remaking Oliver Twist.

'The hardest thing was condensing the book into a film -- it would have been impossible to film the whole book so we focused on the main plot and eliminated the sub plots. But we kept the essential story untouched,' he said.

Although the filmmaker declined to reveal the cost of the film, a French, English and Czech co-production, its budget is understood to have been around 45 million euros (58 million dollars).

Oliver Twist is due to be released in the latter half of 2005.

Source: AFP