Pedro Almodovar is switching tongues, and he’s recruiting an Oscar-winning actress to help…

The 72-year-old Spanish Oscar-winning film director, screenwriter and producer is preparing to direct his first full-length English-language feature A Manual for Cleaning Women, with Cate Blanchett set to produce and star in the film.

Still in the early stages of development, the film is based on Lucia Berlin’s 43-part collection of short stories, examining the lives of women working a wide variety of demanding jobs.

Blanchett, Andrew Upton and Coco Francini will produce for Dirty Films, with Almodóvar for El Deseo, and Brian Oliver and Bradley Fischer for New Republic Pictures.

The film is Almodóvar’s follow-up to Parallel Mothers, the Sony Pictures Classic drama starring Penélope Cruz about two mothers who give birth the same day, and the English-language short The Human Voice starring Tilda Swinton, which was shortlisted by the Film Academy last year.

Almodovar has won two Academy Awards: He picked up the Best Foreign Language Film award for All About My Mother and the Best Original Screenplay award for Talk To Her.