‘Onwards and Sideways’ Director John Madden on the Key Decision That Shaped the Parkinson’s Drama

Director John Madden is set to return to the Toronto International Film Festival with "Onwards and Sideways," a Parkinson's drama he directed 16 years after his Oscar-nominated film, "Shakespeare in Love." The film stars Laura Linney and Rhys Ifans as two strangers both diagnosed with Parkinson's disease on the same day at the same clinic, a key decision that Madden felt would drive the entire narrative.

Paul Mayhew-Archer wrote the script, having been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2011 and using it as inspiration for his characters, Emma Dretzin, a single mother, and Tony Evans, a deputy head of a primary school. The film follows their unexpected friendship and how the shared diagnosis forces them down different paths. Ifans, who has been attached to the project for a decade, emphasized the importance of seeing such a story on the big screen, while Linney was drawn to the project after reading the script and finding it refreshingly life-affirming.