Principal photography has begun today (July 6th) in the UK on Academy Award-nominated Irish director Lenny Abrahamson’s latest film The Little Stranger, based on Sarah Waters’ best-selling novel.
The film is directed by Lenny Abrahamson (Oscar nominated for Best Director for Room) and stars Domhnall Gleeson (Frank) as Dr Faraday, Golden Globe winner Ruth Wilson (The Affair) as Caroline Ayres, BAFTA winner Will Poulter (The Revenant) as Roderick Ayres, and Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling (45 Years) as Mrs Ayres.
The Little Stranger is a chilling ghost story written by BAFTA nominee Lucinda Coxon (The Danish Girl) adapted from Waters’ novel. It tells the story of Dr Faraday, the son of a housemaid, who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. During the long hot summer of 1948, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall, where his mother once worked. The Hall has been home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries. But it is now in decline and its inhabitants – mother, son and daughter – are haunted by something more ominous than a dying way of life. When he takes on his new patient, Faraday has no idea how closely, and how terrifyingly, the family’s story is about to become entwined with his own.
The film is produced by Potboiler Productions’ Gail Egan (The Constant Gardener) and Andrea Calderwood (The Last King of Scotland), and Element Pictures’ Ed Guiney (Room). It is executive produced by Cameron McCracken for Pathé, Daniel Battsek for Film4, Andrew Lowe for Element Pictures, Celine Haddad for the Irish Film Board and Tim O’Shea for Ingenious.
Director of Photography is Ole Birkeland (The Crown), with costumes by Steven Noble (BAFTA nominee for The Theory of Everything) and hair and make-up by Sian Grigg (Oscar nominee for The Revenant). Simon Elliott (The Iron Lady and BAFTA TV winner for Bleak House) is Production Designer.
Pathé will distribute the film in the UK, France and Switzerland. Focus Features acquired the film from Pathé International for distribution throughout the rest of the world. Focus will release the film domestically and Universal Pictures International will distribute The Little Stranger in non-Pathé territories.
The Little Stranger is a Focus Features, Pathé, Film4 presentation in association with Ingenious Media and the Irish Film Board, of a Potboiler production, in association with Element Pictures. The film was developed by Film4 with Potboiler.
Other films that Abrahamson and Element have in the pipeline include an adaptation of Laird Hunt’s Civil War novel Neverhome; an adaptation of Neal Bascomb’s upcoming book The Grand Escape; an adaptation of Burning Rainbow Farm which tells the story of Tom Crosslin and Rollie Rohm and their FBI-raided marijuana-friendly farm; a biography of boxer Emile Griffith, based on the book A Man’s World: The Double Life Of Emile Griffith; an adaptation of Gitta Sereny’s Into That Darkness, the story of Franz Stangl SS commandant of the Sobibor and Treblinka extermination camps scripted by Enda Walsh (Hunger, Disco Pigs); and an original feature called Us, written by Adam & Paul screenwriter Mark O’Halloran. Abrahamson and Element are also working with writer Nancy Harris on a TV adaptation of Antony Trollope’s novel The Kellys and The O’Kellys, which is being developed for BBC Northern Ireland.
The Little Stranger is expected to be released in 2018.