DEADLINE – Alessandro Nivola and Gemma Arterton head a killer cast for a three-part adaptation of the 1939 classic Rumer Godden literary novel Black Narcissus, a tale of sexual repression and forbidden love. BAFTA-winning writer Amanda Coe (The Trial of Christine Keeler, Apple Tree Yard) wrote the three hourlong episodes and renowned DP Charlotte Bruus Christensen makes her directing debut.

BBC One is producing with DNA TV and FX Productions. The exec producers are Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich and Coe for DNA TV and FX Productions and Lucy Richer for the BBC. Filming starts in October in Jomsom, Nepal and Pinewood Studios, UK.

Black Narcissus was previously adapted for screen in 1947 by Powell and Pressburger and subsequently won two Oscars for Cinematography (Jack Cardiff) and Art Direction (Alfred Junge).

Arterton (The King’s Man, The Escape) plays Sister Clodagh, the leader of the nuns of St Faiths, who travel to Nepal to set up a branch of their order in the remote palace of Mopu. In the unfettered sensuality of the so-called House of Women, Sister Clodagh finds herself increasingly attracted to a handsome and damaged land agent, Mr Dean (Nivola). He is a dissolute English colonial and First World War veteran whose combative relationship with the head sister of the order awakens hidden longings in both. But as the repressed memories of Clodagh’s past become entangled with the tragic history of Princess Srimati, history seems doomed to repeat itself. Are there really ghosts here in the Himalayas, or are the nuns just succumbing to long-repressed primal desires? And which of them is prepared to die – or kill – for love?

Said Coe: “I’m thrilled to be adapting Black Narcissus for BBC One. It’s a truly extraordinary love story, as well as a brilliantly unsettling piece of 20th century gothic about the power of a place to get under your skin and the dangers of refusing to learn from history.”

Nivola takes on the project after filming the lead role of Dickie Moltisanti in The Sopranos prequel film The Many Saints of Newark for New Line and Warner Bros, which Sopranos creator David Chase co-wrote and produced. Aisling Franciosi (The Nightingale, I Know This Much Is True) plays Sister Ruth, Diana Rigg (Game of Thrones, Victoria) plays Mother Dorothea, Jim Broadbent (The Iron Lady) plays Father Roberts, Gina McKee (Catherine the Great, Bodyguard) plays Sister Adela, Rosie Cavaliero (Prey, Unforgotten) plays Sister Briony, Patsy Ferran (Tom and Jerry, Jamestown) plays Sister Blanche, Karen Bryson (MotherFatherSon, Safe) plays Sister Philippa, and Dipika Kunwar makes her TV debut as Kanchi. (source)

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY – Director Matthew Vaughn’s third Kingsman movie is firming up a Kick-Ass cast.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson (re-teaming with Vaughn after Kick-Ass 2) and Gemma Arterton (The Escape, Netflix’s Watership Down) have joined the cast of Kingsman: The Great Game, EW has learned.

Vaughn, returning to write and direct, always intended the Kingsman films to be a trilogy. He previously spoke about potential plans for a more traditional sequel to Kingsman: The Golden Circle for “the conclusion of the Harry Hart-Eggsy relationship.” However, The Great Game is not that.

The subtitle is one Vaughn mentioned during past interviews in reference to a prequel that would follow the organization of Kingsman agents in the ’90s. Taron Egerton, the star of the past two Kingsman movies as Eggsy, will sit this one out as The Great Game will be the origin of the Kingsman story.

Taylor-Johnson and Arterton join the previously cast Charles Dance (HBO’s Game of Thrones), Daniel Bruhl (TNT’s The Alienist), Harris Dickinson (FX’s Trust), and Ralph Fiennes (Holmes & Watson).

Kingsman: The Secret Service introduced Eggsy as a London rabble-rouser recruited to try out for the Kingsman spy agency under the tutelage of Colin Firth’s Agent Harry Hart. The sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, took the agents to meet the organization’s American brethren, The Statesman, to take down drug kingpin Poppy (Julianne Moore).

The Great Game is currently scheduled for release on Nov. 8. (source)

SCREENDAILY – Gemma Arterton will lead the cast of Summerland, the directing debut of Olivier Award-winning playwright Jessica Swale.

Swale has also penned the screenplay of the feature, which is set during the Second World War and stars Arterton in the lead role of Alice.

When an evacuee boy arrives out of the blue and is placed in her care, Alice resolves to be rid of him. Yet, as the young boy opens her heart, allowing her to unlock the secrets of her past, Alice begins to realise that sometimes imagination really can set you free.

Swale won Bafta’s JJ Screenwriting bursary for the project in 2012.

Her theatre credits include Blue Stockings, which premiered at London’s Globe theatre in 2013, and Nell Gwynn, starring Arterton, which won her the Olivier Award for best new comedy in 2016.

Guy Heeley of Shoebox Films, whose credits include Locke, is producing. Principal photography is scheduled for late summer this year.

Embankment Films is launching international sales on the project and is co-representing the US with Gersh.

Embankment’s Tim Haslam said: “Jessica and Gemma are such a potent creative duo. Jess’s writing is stunning, evocative and highly emotional, and Gemma’s charisma, quick wit and intelligence connect her performances with audiences of all ages.”

Gemma Arterton added: “Jessica gave me a wonderful gift in the character of Nell Gwynn, and she’s done it again with Alice in Summerland. Jessica is an exciting new voice in film and I’m very privileged to be able to work with her as a director. She has impeccable instincts, a clear vision and inspires confidence in everyone around her.”

Producer Guy Heeley said: “Jessica really is a fresh, stand-out voice, and is currently one of the UK’s most in-demand talents. It’s a great pleasure to team her up with Gemma again. They have an intuitive creative understanding that is sure to deliver something special on the screen – a British film to charm and inspire worldwide cinema-goers.” (source)

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER – Eva Green and Gemma Arterton will star in drama Vita & Virginia, based on the true story of the love affair and friendship between literary icon Virginia Woolf and author Vita Sackville-West.

The film will be directed by British helmer Chanya Button (Burn, Burn, Burn) from a script by Eileen Atkins based on her own play of the same name, which debuted in 1992.

Virginia Stephen married Leonard Woolf in 1912, and then met socialiate and author Vita Sackville-West, wife of Harold Nicolson, in 1922. They began a sexual relationship that lasted nearly a decade, as shown in their various letters and diary entries. After their affair ended, they remained friends until Woolf’s death in 1941.

Katie Holly and Evangelo Kioussis are producing the project while Simon Baxter will executive produce. Protagonist is introducing the project to buyers at EFM in Berlin.

Green was most recently seen in Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and White Bird in a Blizzard with Shailene Woodley. She’ll soon be seen in Euphoria with Alicia Vikander and Roman Polanski’s Based on a True Story.

Arterton’s recently films include Lone Scherfig’s Their Finest with Sam Claflin, and she has The Escape with Dominic Cooper coming up. She’s also attached to Julie Delpy’s My Zoe. (source)

DEADLINE – Julie Delpy is set to star alongside Gemma Arterton and Daniel Brühl in My Zoe, an emotional and provocative drama directed by Delpy from her own script.

It’s scheduled to shoot in the UK next Spring and the story is about the lengths to which a mother’s love goes for her child. Delpy plays Isabelle, a geneticist recovering from a toxic marriage and raising her daughter Zoe in conjunction with her ex-husband. Zoe means everything to her mother but when tragedy strikes the fractured family, Isabelle takes matters into her own hands.

Brühl and Arterton play a couple Isabelle turns to for help in Moscow while Lior Ashkenazy (Big Bad Wolves, Footnote) plays Isabelle’s new boyfriend. The role of ex-husband James is currently being cast.

London-based sales banner Protagonist Pictures is handling international sales on the film and will launch the title to buyers at the European Film Market in Berlin in February.

Gabrielle Tana (Philomena, The Duchess) produces for Baby Cow Films, whose most recent projects include Steve Cantor documentary Dancer and Andrew Fleming’s Ideal Home with Steve Coogan and Paul Rudd, set for an early 2017 release. Electrik Films France’s Hubert Caillard and Dominique Boutonnat will co-produce.

“I started thinking and taking notes about this film over 20 years ago,” said Delpy. “It first came to my mind discussing with [director Krzysztof] Kieslowski about parenting, love and fate. The film is about the unconditional love you feel as a parent. It was a very profound process to write it. I gave it all the truth I had and I hope it resonates with others.”

Protagonist CEO Mike Goodridge said: “My Zoe is one of those movies that people stand around and argue about. Julie has created a compulsive drama about what it means to be a parent and what lengths a parent will go to for their children.” (source)

VARIETY – Independent has picked up international sales duties on “The Escape,” a drama about a woman who abandons her husband and children. The film, which is directed by Dominic Savage (“Love+Hate,” “Freefall”), stars Gemma Arterton and Dominic Cooper. It will be introduced to buyers at Toronto.

Arterton stars in Toronto festival entry “Their Finest,” while Cooper is a hit on AMC’s “Preacher.”

” ‘The Escape’ will be an exploration of marriage and motherhood,” said Arterton. “It is frank, honest and unapologetically from the woman’s point of view. It will be extremely personal. I look forward to embarking on it, surrounded by people I trust and who understand the intention, and to digging deep and finding truth.”

The production team have workshopped the script for several months, and shooting is scheduled for October in the U.K. and France.

[…]

Independent’s managing director Andrew Orr said: “The Escape” deals with a subject that is “still very much taboo in our society – a woman who loves her children but does not feel fulfilled by the role of being a mother.”

Savage said: “I look forward to embarking on a journey of truth and revelation that will tell this important story of motherhood, marriage, responsibility and freedom.” (source)

by Ali Jaafar

Netflix and the BBC are teaming on a blockbuster adaptation of the classic novel Watership Down. The four-part animated miniseries is the brainchild of dynamic Brit production-management banner 42. The series will premiere on BBC One in the UK and internationally on Netflix. An A-list collection of talent has been assembled for the project including Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ John Boyega, James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, Ben Kingsley and Gemma Arterton. Read More