Thomas Vinterberg’s latest film, The Hunt, took three awards at its Cannes debut earlier this year, and is coming our way next month as part of the BFI London Film Festival.
The writer-director is now setting his sights on his next film, with The Wrap reporting that he is in talks to direct an upcoming adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s classic novel, Far from the Madding Crowd.
And not only that, but the brilliant Carey Mulligan, truly one of the finest actresses to rise in recent years, is being eyed for the lead.
David Nicholls (Starter for 10, Great Expectations) is set to pen the script, with DNA Films (Never Let Me Go, 28 Days Later) producing for Fox Searchlight alongside BBC Films.
DNA have worked with Mulligan previously on Never Let Me Go, which won her the Best Actress award at the British Independent Film Awards (alongside a handful of others), and any news of an upcoming Mulligan role will always be good news.
Courtesy of Waterstones, the synopsis of Hardy’s original 1874 novel looks a little like this:
“’I cannot allow any man to – to criticise my private conduct!’ she exclaimed. ‘Nor will I for a minute’. Hardy’s powerful novel of swift sexual passion and slow-burning loyalty centres on Bathsheba Everdene, a proud working woman whose life is complicated by three different men – respectable farmer Boldwood, seductive Sergeant Troy and devoted Gabriel – making her the object of scandal and betrayal. Vividly portraying the superstitions and traditions of a small rural community, “Far from the Madding Crowd” shows the precarious position of a woman in a man’s world. The Penguin English Library – 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.”
No word yet on when this might go before cameras, but Mulligan’s schedule is currently looking fairly light, with The Great Gatsby and Inside Llewyn Davis both in post-production for next year, so here’s to hoping that it will get underway sooner rather than later. The trio of Vinterberg, Mulligan, and Nicholls would certainly be something to look forward to. More as we get it.
