Richard Gere stars in 'Longing,' a remake of an Israeli film

Richard Gere is starring in an English-language remake of Longing by Israeli director Savi Gabizon, set to hit US theaters on June 7.

Gere has visited Israel several times and starred in the 2016 movie Norman, by Israeli director Joseph Cedar, in which he played a conman who befriended an Israeli prime minister. The movie was filmed in filmed in the US and Israel.

The Longing remake is set in the US, however, and is being remade by Gabizon himself – an unusual move, because generally, when Israeli directors sell a film for a remake, a different director is brought in.

Longing, which won the BNL Audience Award at the Venice Film Festival, tells the story of a man whose old girlfriend looks him up and is shocked to learn that he fathered a child with her, and that child grew up and then died tragically. Diane Kruger stars opposite Gere as the mother of his child.

Gabizon, one of Israel’s most popular movie directors, made his first film, Shuroo, in 1991, which he followed up with the hit Lovesick on Nana Street in 1995. His next film, Nina’s Tragedies, was the first Israeli film to compete in the Best Narrative Feature section at the Sundance Film Festival.