Richard Curtis, a writer and now director who is one of those people in the Industry who has that magic touch of turning every project into Gold has cast the main roles of his next picture THE BOAT THAT ROCKED.

The Working Title comedy will star Kenneth Branagh and two Curtis-alumni in Rhys Ifans (NOTTING HILL) and January Jones (LOVE ACTUALLY) in the lead roles and will begin filming March 3rd in London say Variety. Sounds typical Curtis film fodder, and that’s cool by me…

Branagh and Ifans play deejays for a pirate radio show in England during the 1970s. Jones, best known for her starring turn as repressed housewife Betty Draper in “Mad Men,” plays an American woman who visits the deejays on the boat and falls for her boyfriend’s pal (Ifans).