Irish director and Academy Award nominee Lenny Abrahamson’s The Little Stranger will be released in Irish and UK cinemas on September 21st via Pathé and Element Pictures Distribution.
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 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.
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.
The Little Stranger 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. Pathé will distribute the film in the UK, France and Switzerland, with Focus Features in North America, and Universal Pictures International elsewhere.
The film has been dated for August 31st in the U.S. and hits our screens 3 weeks later on September 21st.
I’m excited to bring ‘The Little Stranger’ to an audience. Sarah’s novel is hypnotic and genre breaking and I couldn’t forget it. I hope we’ve done it justice – I think we have.
Lenny Abrahamson, Director
The moment The Little Stranger finished, I wanted to watch it again. The product of a perfect combination of things – genius direction, a great script, masterly acting, lush cinematography – it’s a complex, poignant, terrifically unsettling film. I couldn’t wish for a better adaptation of the novel.
Sarah Waters, Writer