Bell perfects American accent

Billy Elliott star Jamie Bell will be using an American accent on screen for the first time in Dear Wendy, a film written by Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier.

Although it is set in a small mining town in West Virginia, Dear Wendy is being filmed in Denmark by Von Trier’s associate, Thomas Vinterberg.

Von Trier was originally due to direct it but handed it over to Vinterberg so he could start work on the third instalment of his trilogy, Manderlay, reports the Hollywood Reporter.

Bell will play Dick, an ingenious teenager who finds a friend and confidant in a pistol after losing his father. Newcomer Alison Pill will play his friend Susan, a girl lost in a world of her own.