DreamWorks and Columbia will cobankroll the film--a fictional story about the life of a young Japanese orphan, Nitta Sayuri, who is sold into geisha society in 1929 and ascends to the top of its ranks. (Though Golden will not pen the screenplay, he will purportedly be employed as an "informal consultant.")
Production on the English-spoken, Japanese-acted film--with the possibility of actually shooting it in Japan--is expected to begin by October. No budget, screenwriter or script has been greenlighted yet, however.
"It's a challenging book that breaks all the rules," Douglas Wick, coproducer with Spielberg on Geisha, tells Daily Variety. "It'll be an epic story, set over a period of 60 years with strong female lead characters."
And we all know Spielberg loves the epic story, especially one that could help him and DreamWorks rebound from the disappointing performance (i.e., no Oscars, middling box-office returns) of Amistad.
Spielberg is currently readying Saving Private Ryan (starring Tom Hanks) for a July release.
Geisha--Spielberg's second film set in Japan, after 1987's Empire of the Sun--is the first of several projects the filmmaker has lined up. The others include a drama entitled The Notebook, a biopic of Charles Lindbergh, something called Mozart and the Whale and Up River.