Update on "The Grandmothers"

A ROLL-call of Aussie stars has been announced for the next locally-based Hollywood flick The Grandmothers.

Ben Mendelsohn and Gary Sweet are to join Naomi Watts and Robin Wright-Penn in The Grandmothers, which begins filming on the mid-north coast this weekend.

With the Sydney production of The Great Gatsby wrapping up, The Grandmothers is set to be the next big Tinseltown production in town.

Watts and Wright-Penn will be joined by Aussie up-and-comers James Frecheville and Xavier Samuel who play their unlikely paramours.

Mendelsohn and Sweet lead the supporting cast and are joined by Sophie Lowe (Beautiful Kate, The Slap) and Jessica Tovey, making her feature film debut.

The eight-week shoot will begin in Seal Rocks and move to central Sydney.

It will be directed by Anne Fontaine, who had a major Hollywood hit with Coco avant Chanel.

Both French and Australian producers are also behind the flick, which is expected to inject thousands into the local economy and continue a strong run of Aussie-based productions putting Australia back on the film map.

Based on the Nobel Prize for Literature winner, The Grandmothers is described as a "heart-wrenching story of two lifelong friends who fall in love with each other's teenaged sons".

Frecheville, who found fame in his feature debut Animal Kingdom, will play the love interest of Wright-Penn and told Confidential this week that he is in good company.

"We have a very good team. It's going to be a great experience," he said.

The film's production begins as The Great Gatsby -- which has filmed in Sydney since last August -- finally wraps up.

(Courier Mail)