Two of Wales’s most celebrated actors are reuniting on screen – Catherine Zeta-Jones has joined Sir Anthony Hopkins in a new film adaptation of a Dylan Thomas short story, with filming already underway in Wales.
A Visit to Grandpa’s follows a young boy sent to spend a summer with his charismatic and wildly eccentric grandfather on a remote Welsh farm.
Expecting dull days and strict rules, the boy instead finds himself drawn into a world of storytelling, imagination and mischief.
New first-look images show Zeta-Jones as an as-yet unnamed character – pictured behind a bar in period costume – while Sir Anthony appears as the grandfather, a white-bearded figure with a walking stick in an outdoor rural setting.
The film is directed by DJ Caruso, whose previous credits include Disturbia and Mary. The script was written by Ken Aguado, and filming began on 7 April in Wales.
Hundreds of people gathered in Dolgellau, Gwynedd, earlier this month to watch production in progress.
The cast also includes Aneurin Barnard, known to Welsh audiences for his role in Dunkirk, alongside Artie Wilkinson-Hunt, Geraldine James and Aimee-Ffion Edwards, who starred in Slow Horses.
Speaking to Deadline, Sir Anthony said: “This is a powerful and profoundly beautiful story, one that allows me to return to my Welsh roots while exploring the remarkable vision and prose of Dylan Thomas.”
Director Caruso called it one of the great honours of his career to bring the story to screen alongside Sir Anthony.
The short story the film is based on – first published in 1938 – tells of a young boy visiting his grandfather in the Carmarthenshire countryside.
Expecting to be bored, the boy instead becomes fascinated by the old man’s eccentricities – including the moment the whole village grows concerned about the grandfather heading to Llanstephan “with his waistcoat on.”
The story appeared in Thomas’s celebrated 1940 collection Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog.
Dylan Thomas was born in Swansea in 1914 and is arguably Wales’s most celebrated writer and poet. His best-known works include Under Milk Wood and Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night. He died in New York in 1953 aged 39.
His influence stretches far beyond Wales – singer-songwriter Bob Dylan took his stage name from Thomas, former US president Jimmy Carter had a lifelong passion for his work, and Taylor Swift name-dropped the poet on her 2024 album The Tortured Poets Department.
The film is set to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival later this year.
