EXCLUSIVE: Much-in-demand Brit actress Rosamund Pike is circling long-gestating project Guernsey, with Harry Potter director Mike Newell also in the mix to direct. The project, previously known by the more unwieldy The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, has previously attracted a string of high-profile actresses to consider the formidable lead role, including Kate Winslet, Lily James and Rebecca Ferguson. The story follows a writer, as she forms an unexpected bond with the residents of Guernsey Island in the aftermath of World War II when she decides to write a book about their experiences during the war.
It is based on Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows’ bestselling novel with a script by Don Roos (Marley & Me). Mitchell Kaplan and Paula Mazur are producing via their Mazur/Kaplan Company banner.
There is still a ways to go before this project gets a green light, but the script remains a perennial favorite among Brit film execs, who praise the richness of the central character. Financing is coming together for this, with a number of players potentially in the mix and kicking the tires, including StudioCanal.
Pike’s career has gone from strength to strength following her astounding turn as the sociopathic wife in David Fincher’s Gone Girl opposite Ben Affleck. The actress has A United Kingdom opposite David Oyelowo in the pipelines, about the international scandal caused by the love affair in the 1940’s between Ruth Williams and Prince Seretse Khama of Botswana. Amma Asante directs that one. Currently filming now is Cedric Jimenez WW2 drama HHhH, about a Czech plot to assassinate despotic Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich. Mia Wasikowski, Jack Reynor and Jack O’Connell co-star in the film, which the Weinstein Co. has acquired for the U.S.
Pike is also attached to the Tony Gilroy-scripted High Wire Act opposite Jon Hamm, about a former U.S. diplomat who returns to service in order to save a former colleague in Beirut as well as Marc Webb’s The Only Living Boy In New York opposite Miles Teller and Jeff Bridges.
Pike is repped by United Agents and CAA.
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