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The Painted Veil
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 The Painted Veil Production NotesTagline: Sometimes the greatest journey is the distance between two people.
Based on the classic novel by Somerset Maugham, The Painted Veil is a love story set in the 1920s that tells the tale of a young English couple, Walter, a middle class doctor and Kitty, an upper-class woman, who get married for the wrong reasons and relocate to Shanghai, where she falls in love with someone else.
When he uncovers her infidelity, in an act of vengeance, he accepts a job in a remote village in China ravaged by a deadly epidemic, and takes her along. Their journey brings meaning to their relationship and gives them purpose in one of the most remote and beautiful places on earth.
Kitty is an upper class London socialite closing in on an age when a proper lady must find a husband. To remain unwed much longer would be highly unbecoming, not to mention humiliating for her exceedingly socially conscious mother. Bored with her privileged lifestyle anyway and yearning for escape, Kitty accepts a proposal of marriage from Dr. Walter Fane, a quiet, serious bacteriologist who moves the new couple to Shanghai.
In the strange city -- which is blooming into the center of popular culture, political intrigue and vice in China -- the Fanes venture out into British colonial society, where they are introduced to English Vice Consul Charles Townsend. While Walter dedicates himself to his work and to his new wife, Kitty embarks on an adulterous affair with Charlie. After Walter learns of her indiscretion, he accepts a job in a remote village in China ravaged by the deadly cholera epidemic, and forces a despondent Kitty to accompany him.
Following the Fanes arrive in the village of Mei-tan-fu, the couple's wintry isolation continues. Kitty befriends a neighbor, Deputy Commissioner Waddington, and the emotional trappings of her former life slowly fall away as she begins to confront the reality of her surroundings.
Amid the human wreckage of the cholera epidemic, which has given both spouses new purpose, Kitty and Walter discover forgiveness, understanding, even tenderness -- and rediscover each other.
About the Production
In the fall of 2004, Edward Norton telephoned Naomi Watts—once again—about playing Kitty Fane in The Painted Veil. This time, he was determined to enlist the actress— for five years, Norton, screenwriter Ron Nyswaner and producer Sara Colleton had been developing an adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s 1925 novel, and they were hoping to finally get it produced.
Unfortunately, Watts, a 2004 Best Actress Oscar nominee who had also recently completed roles in The Ring Two and Marc Forster’s Stay, had just finished a grueling eightmonth shoot in Australia for King Kong and wasn’t eager to begin another film. “I was tired, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to work again for at least that part of the year,” she admits. But after speaking at length with the persuasive Norton, “Suddenly my promise to myself about not working went out the window,” she laughs. “I always knew this book would make a great film.”
“I spoke to Naomi toward the end of 2004,” remembers Norton, who has earned two Oscar nominations—one for his very first role in a motion picture. “I said, ‘Look, we could both do this next summer. Let’s really put our heads together and think of a director we’d be excited to work with. Let’s do it.’”
It had been a long journey, however, to get to this point. The film began its road to the big screen in 1995 when screenwriter Ron Nyswaner began looking for his next project. Nyswaner had written the screenplay for the seminal 1993 film Philadelphia, which had gone on to receive widespread acclaim and earned the writer an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
“I’ve been intrigued by Maugham’s work ever since I saw Of Human Bondage as a kid,” he explains, referring to the film adaptation of Maugham’s most famous book, which starred Bette Davis and Leslie Howard in its 1934 incarnation. “I was fascinated by the melodramatic story of obsessive love. I went through his books one by one, and I finally read The Painted Veil. It was this book of Maugham’s that haunted me more than any other.
In a conversation with producer Sara Colleton, Nyswaner referenced The Painted Veil as one of his favorite books. Sara revealed that she had in fact spent the last year trying to secure rights to the book with the Maugham estate. It was destiny.
“We talked about Maugham’s book and how it deals with the topic of sexual love versus spiritual love more honestly than any piece of literature today,” she recalls. “We both knew then that we really wanted to make the film version.”
Maugham, who was born in Paris in 1874 but grew up in England, spent years as a medical student before becoming one of the 20th century’s most popular novelists. Nyswaner admired the way this particular story by the author transformed from one about revenge into one about redemption.
“On the surface, the story is direct and dramatic: a man with a broken heart seeks to punish his adulterous wife. The journey of this ill-matched couple is fraught with sexual and psychological tension,” he points out. “The story takes a surprising twist, however, as the characters come to see themselves—and each other—in a new light; the psychological thriller becomes a spiritual journey.”
With Nyswaner on board, Colleton began work on an early draft of the script with him. Portions of the book that explain Kitty’s backstory and shed light on her decision to marry Walter were condensed into a brief prologue of flashbacks. After three years of intense rewriting and development—during which producer Jean-François Fonlupt was also brought on board— Colleton and Nyswaner sent the script to Edward Norton, “who would remain a stalwart element on the project,” Colleton says.
In 1999, Norton’s first impressions of the script were overwhelmingly positive. “Ron adapted it wonderfully,” he remembers. “I thought it was a great piece of writing.” Norton, a talented filmmaker in his own right and a self-described Sinophile, immediately responded to the complex character of bacteriologist Walter Fane and his mercurial relationship with wife Kitty. “Walter and Kitty’s emotional journey as a couple is compelling in the script, especially how they transcend their own negativity about each other and resuscitate their relationship,” he explains. “Walter has to find his way to forgiveness. This story really hit all the numbers for me,” he adds, “because these are some the most challenging issues in life.”
Despite Norton’s fondness for the script, for various reasons, “We couldn’t get the film made at that time,” says the actor. Norton would go on to make his feature film directorial debut, Keeping the Faith, which he also produced and starred in alongside Ben Stiller and Jenna Elfman. But even from the back burner, The Painted Veil seemed to preoccupy Norton as intensely as it had haunted Ron Nyswaner.
“Ron’s dialogue and his sense of Maugham’s themes were so sophisticated and well done—it was one of those scripts that stayed in my brain,” says the actor. “Eventually, I called Ron and Sara and said, ‘Listen, why don’t we take another crack at this?’”
Norton came on board as a producer late in 1999, which injected the project with new vigor. “Edward worked ceaselessly, year after year, to guide this project towards production,” praises Nyswaner. The two collaborated for the next six months on the script in an effort to, in Norton’s words, “liberate it from the novel a little bit. We wanted to open it up to China somewhat and to create a romantic transcendence in the film, which doesn’t exist in the novel, and take the Walter-Kitty relationship farther.”
Norton, who had studied Chinese history as a Yale undergraduate, was a valuable resource for Nyswaner during the rewriting process. “It was with his inspiration and guidance that I began to explore the work Walter does in China, which is completely absent from the book,” explains the screenwriter.
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