Pierce Brosnan will collaborate with Oscar winner Susanne Bier

March 3, 2011 | 7:08 pm

EXCLUSIVE: It's been a while since we've seen Pierce Brosnan in a romantic comedy -- nearly three years, in fact, since he vied for Meryl Streep's attentions in the romantic musical comedy "Mamma Mia!" In the time since. Brosnan has dabbled in a lot of other genres: political thriller ("The Ghost Writer"), widower drama ("The Greatest"), religion-themed thriller (the upcoming "Salvation Boulevard.")

But Brosnan will now return to one of his wheelhouses: He's signed on for a lead role in "All You Need Is Love," the first post-Oscar project for Susanne Bier, who took a statuette for her youth-violence drama "In a Better World" on Sunday. The movie, which Bier wrote with Brosnan in mind, shoots in Amalfi this spring.

Although Bier is known mainly for melodrama -- she also directed Danish war weepie "Brothers" and the broken-family picture "Things We Lost in the Fire," her English-language debut -- the filmmaker revealed this week that her new movie is a romance with a more buoyant feel. “It’s a tender story with a much lighter atmosphere than my previous works: Enough with conflicts,” she told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. (Her 2006 Oscar-nominated "After the Wedding," though a drama, did have a few comedic moments.)

The paper also said "Love" would center on a Danish family, although given that Brosnan doesn't speak Danish, we're imagining said family will speak English, or the movie will at least be bilingual.

Brosnan called the new project a "delightful love story" that mixes the serious and humorous. "It's a comedy -- a love story which has punch and deals with loss and a great love."