When British producer Andy Harries first approached BBC Films with Deadlocked four years ago, Mirren was already onboard to portray the central character, a British-Jewish doctor playing detective after her journalist daughter dies on the streets of Gaza City, in the process discovering the hidden life her daughter had led. While the film was briefly shelved following the Arab Spring uprisings — making location scouting a slightly more harried affair, to be sure — Harries’s partnership with Canadian Rob Heydon’s Ecstasy Pictures has brought the $10 million drama back to life. Taking advantage of Canadian tax rebates, several of the interior shots will now be filmed north of the border, with a Canadian crew later shooting exterior scenes on location in the Middle East. (Before the regional unrest, Deadlocked’s producers had been contemplating Jordan, all things said one of the calmer countries in the area.) Work on the film is set to start in spring 2012. [THR]