"Love in Time of Cholera" presents major English-language adaptation of Garcia Marquez's novel

The public expect for Javier Bardem, John Leguizamo and Benjamin Bratt to turn out Thursday night for the gala premiere of the film "Love in the Time of Cholera," based on the novel by Nobel Prize-winning Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Photo: "Love in Time of Cholera" presents major English-language adaptation of Garcia Marquez's novel

The film, directed by Mike Newell, is the first major English-language adaptation of a Garcia Marquez novel.

The epic, turn-of-the-century tale is set along South America's Caribbean coast and follows one man's quest to win his unrequited love.

The film marks the first Latin American foray for the British director Newell ("Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral"). And it boasts an international cast including the Spanish Bardem, Americans Bratt and Leguizamo and Italian Giovanna Mezzogiorno - who stars as Bardem's love interest.

Colombian singer Shakira provided music for the film.

Garcia Marquez, 80, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1982 and is recognized for having brought Latin America's magic realism to a global audience. "Love in the Time of Cholera," his second most famous work after, "One Hundred Years of Solitude," was first published in 1985 but received renewed attention last month when Oprah Winfrey chose it for her book club.

Garcia Marquez's literary agent did not answer phone calls nor immediately respond to an e-mail asking for an interview with the author, who famously shuns such requests.