Gillian Anderson, Toni Collette and Joanna Lumley have been cast in director Fred Schepisi's new film 'Andorra'.

Gillian Anderson

Gillian Anderson

The trio of stars will join Clive Owen in the mysterious drama movie based in the Southwestern Europe being made by the veteran Australian filmmaker.

Also boarding the project is Riccardo Scamarcio and production is scheduled to start in Italy next April.

The plot follows American man Alexander Fox (Owen) who settles in the small country but sees his idyllic life become a nightmare as he is linked to a dead body that is found floating in the harbour.

Jump Street Films are bringing the project to the big screen and a synopsis released for the film reads: "Clive Owen plays Alexander Fox, a bookseller who leaves the US after a personal tragedy to begin a new life abroad. The tiny country he chooses - Andorra - is an idyllic escape, offering Alexander the chance to reinvent himself. He quickly becomes entangled with Mrs. Dent (Collette), an Australian who shares a first name, a large dog and a volatile secret with her husband, and Mrs. Quay (Lumley), the kayaking matriarch of an Andorran dynasty who seems to recall him from long ago. As Alexander finds comfort in the company of her daughter, Miss Quay (Anderson), the mystery of Fox's origin deepens. A woman's body is found soon after his arrival in Andorra and the local lieutenant, Afgroni (Scamarcio) becomes strangely convinced that he is responsible. With his past threatening to envelop his newfound paradise, Fox finds himself in a crisis of conscience and identity, in a foreign country he may never be able to escape from."