Exclusive: Sacred Hunger, the Booker Prize-winning novel by Barry Unsworth, is set for a small-screen remake.
Plan B and Marshall exec producer Chris Bongirne and his production company Smokestack Films have teamed up with financier Stephen Leist to acquire the rights to the book, which follows the journey of a struggling young English doctor aboard 18th century slave ship the Liverpool Merchant.
The book was published in 1992 and it shared the Booker Prize that year with Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient, which went on to become Anthony Minghella’s Oscar-winning film starring Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas.
Sacred Hunger begins when the ship is stricken by disease, watching as its crew and their cargo of African prisoners, meant for the slave trade, unite in mutiny, a move that will ultimately free both from the period’s oppressive and dehumanizing grip of commerce and greed.
Bongirne recently exec produced...
Plan B and Marshall exec producer Chris Bongirne and his production company Smokestack Films have teamed up with financier Stephen Leist to acquire the rights to the book, which follows the journey of a struggling young English doctor aboard 18th century slave ship the Liverpool Merchant.
The book was published in 1992 and it shared the Booker Prize that year with Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient, which went on to become Anthony Minghella’s Oscar-winning film starring Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas.
Sacred Hunger begins when the ship is stricken by disease, watching as its crew and their cargo of African prisoners, meant for the slave trade, unite in mutiny, a move that will ultimately free both from the period’s oppressive and dehumanizing grip of commerce and greed.
Bongirne recently exec produced...
- 6/28/2021
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Nan A. Talese, President, Publisher and Editorial Director of her eponymous Doubleday imprint, will retire at the end of the year, bringing an end to one of publishing’s most celebrated careers that also included stints at Random House, Simon & Schuster and Houghton Mifflin.
Since starting her Nan A. Talese imprint at Doubleday in 1990, Talese, who is married to author Gay Talese, has published a list of prominent authors including Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan, Adam Haslett, Alex Kotlowitz, Pat Conroy, Thomas Keneally, Mia Farrow, Jim Crace, Valerie Martin, Peter Ackroyd, Mary Morris, Louis Begley, Jennifer Egan, Mark Richard, Judy Collins, Barry Unsworth, Antonia Fraser, Thomas Cahill, Janet Wallach, and George Plimpton.
Talese’s successor was not announced.
After beginning her career at Vogue, Talese joined Random House in 1959 as a copy editor, then became the first woman to hold the position of literary editor. In that role, she worked with such writers as A.
Since starting her Nan A. Talese imprint at Doubleday in 1990, Talese, who is married to author Gay Talese, has published a list of prominent authors including Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan, Adam Haslett, Alex Kotlowitz, Pat Conroy, Thomas Keneally, Mia Farrow, Jim Crace, Valerie Martin, Peter Ackroyd, Mary Morris, Louis Begley, Jennifer Egan, Mark Richard, Judy Collins, Barry Unsworth, Antonia Fraser, Thomas Cahill, Janet Wallach, and George Plimpton.
Talese’s successor was not announced.
After beginning her career at Vogue, Talese joined Random House in 1959 as a copy editor, then became the first woman to hold the position of literary editor. In that role, she worked with such writers as A.
- 7/8/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Margaret Atwood’s novel The Testaments, her long-awaited follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale, shared the prestigious Booker Prize for Fiction at a ceremony in London last night (October 15).
The literary award was split with Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other. Evaristo became the first black woman to win the prize.
The Testaments was published last month, 34 years after the release of The Handmaid’s Tale. The popular TV adaptation of the original text starring Elisabeth Moss debuted on Hulu in 2017 and has run for three seasons, with a fourth on the horizon.
The novel sequel is set 15 years after events in The Handmaid’s Tale. The series has outstripped the original source material across its four seasons (Atwood is a consulting producer) but that temporal leap means events in the second book will likely come into play further down the line. MGM and Hulu are jointly developing the second...
The literary award was split with Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other. Evaristo became the first black woman to win the prize.
The Testaments was published last month, 34 years after the release of The Handmaid’s Tale. The popular TV adaptation of the original text starring Elisabeth Moss debuted on Hulu in 2017 and has run for three seasons, with a fourth on the horizon.
The novel sequel is set 15 years after events in The Handmaid’s Tale. The series has outstripped the original source material across its four seasons (Atwood is a consulting producer) but that temporal leap means events in the second book will likely come into play further down the line. MGM and Hulu are jointly developing the second...
- 10/15/2019
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Opens
Friday, March 5
It's not every week that a bona fide medieval murder mystery rolls into town, especially one with a plot line that could have been ripped from today's headlines while remaining true to its 14th century English setting.
That's the neat trick of "The Reckoning", a beguiling, multilayered drama based on the Barry Unsworth novel "Morality Play", about a troupe of traveling actors who inadvertently pull the lid off corruption in a small village and end up forever changing the scope of their chosen art form in the process.
Ironically, the Paul McGuigan film stumbles in the third act and ultimately falls prey to the very theatricality that its characters were attempting to move beyond, stranding an able ensemble led by Willem Dafoe and Paul Bettany.
Even if it fails to make good on all that promise, "The Reckoning" still deserves attention for its noble intentions, but it's going to be a true test of Paramount Classics' marketing abilities to make that happen given the picture's tough-to-categorize genre.
Bettany plays Nicholas, a young priest on the run from the authorities and a shadowy past (adultery would appear to play a part) who takes refuge with a group of itinerant actors led by the charismatic Martin (Dafoe).
An unplanned detour takes the troupe to a rather ominous town that is in the midst of sentencing a mysterious woman (Elvira Minguez) to hang for the strangling death of a young boy.
Despite the prevailing dark mood, Martin determines that the show must go on, but at the last minute, rather than putting on yet another biblical drama, he instead decides to tell the story of the murdered boy.
The gambit, while effectively setting the stage for what will later become known as the morality play, ignites a series of social fireworks leading to a showdown between Bettany's Nicholas and the town's power-crazed potentate, Robert de Guise (a scenery masticating Vincent Cassel).
Director McGuigan, who made his mark with "Gangster No. 1", adroitly layers on all the period atmosphere while establishing a decidedly nonstuffy visual energy thanks to extensive hand-held camera work by former Barry Levinson collaborator Peter Sova.
While McGuigan isn't able to find a satisfactory solution to the later tone problems in screenwriter Mark Mills' adaptation, he certainly coaxes some fine work from his players, also including the always reliable Brian Cox as one of the more cantankerous members of Dafoe's motley crew.
The Reckoning
Paramount Classics
Paramount Classics presents a Renaissance Films production in association with Kanzaman/MDA Films
Credits:
Director: Paul McGuigan
Producer: Caroline Wood
Screenwriter: Mark Mills
Adapted from the novel "Morality Play" by: Barry Unsworth
Executive producers: Stephen Evans, Angus Finney
Director of photography: Peter Sova
Production designer: Andrew McAlpine
Editor: Andrew Hulme
Costume designer: Yvonne Blake
Music: Adrian Lee, Mark Mancina
Cast:
Martin: Willem Dafoe
Nicholas: Paul Bettany
Sarah: Gina McKee
Tobias: Brian Cox
Damian: Ewen Bremner
Robert de Guise: Vincent Cassel
Stephen: Simon McBurney
Martha: Elvira Minguez
Running time -- 110 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Friday, March 5
It's not every week that a bona fide medieval murder mystery rolls into town, especially one with a plot line that could have been ripped from today's headlines while remaining true to its 14th century English setting.
That's the neat trick of "The Reckoning", a beguiling, multilayered drama based on the Barry Unsworth novel "Morality Play", about a troupe of traveling actors who inadvertently pull the lid off corruption in a small village and end up forever changing the scope of their chosen art form in the process.
Ironically, the Paul McGuigan film stumbles in the third act and ultimately falls prey to the very theatricality that its characters were attempting to move beyond, stranding an able ensemble led by Willem Dafoe and Paul Bettany.
Even if it fails to make good on all that promise, "The Reckoning" still deserves attention for its noble intentions, but it's going to be a true test of Paramount Classics' marketing abilities to make that happen given the picture's tough-to-categorize genre.
Bettany plays Nicholas, a young priest on the run from the authorities and a shadowy past (adultery would appear to play a part) who takes refuge with a group of itinerant actors led by the charismatic Martin (Dafoe).
An unplanned detour takes the troupe to a rather ominous town that is in the midst of sentencing a mysterious woman (Elvira Minguez) to hang for the strangling death of a young boy.
Despite the prevailing dark mood, Martin determines that the show must go on, but at the last minute, rather than putting on yet another biblical drama, he instead decides to tell the story of the murdered boy.
The gambit, while effectively setting the stage for what will later become known as the morality play, ignites a series of social fireworks leading to a showdown between Bettany's Nicholas and the town's power-crazed potentate, Robert de Guise (a scenery masticating Vincent Cassel).
Director McGuigan, who made his mark with "Gangster No. 1", adroitly layers on all the period atmosphere while establishing a decidedly nonstuffy visual energy thanks to extensive hand-held camera work by former Barry Levinson collaborator Peter Sova.
While McGuigan isn't able to find a satisfactory solution to the later tone problems in screenwriter Mark Mills' adaptation, he certainly coaxes some fine work from his players, also including the always reliable Brian Cox as one of the more cantankerous members of Dafoe's motley crew.
The Reckoning
Paramount Classics
Paramount Classics presents a Renaissance Films production in association with Kanzaman/MDA Films
Credits:
Director: Paul McGuigan
Producer: Caroline Wood
Screenwriter: Mark Mills
Adapted from the novel "Morality Play" by: Barry Unsworth
Executive producers: Stephen Evans, Angus Finney
Director of photography: Peter Sova
Production designer: Andrew McAlpine
Editor: Andrew Hulme
Costume designer: Yvonne Blake
Music: Adrian Lee, Mark Mancina
Cast:
Martin: Willem Dafoe
Nicholas: Paul Bettany
Sarah: Gina McKee
Tobias: Brian Cox
Damian: Ewen Bremner
Robert de Guise: Vincent Cassel
Stephen: Simon McBurney
Martha: Elvira Minguez
Running time -- 110 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Opens
Friday, March 5
It's not every week that a bona fide medieval murder mystery rolls into town, especially one with a plot line that could have been ripped from today's headlines while remaining true to its 14th century English setting.
That's the neat trick of "The Reckoning", a beguiling, multilayered drama based on the Barry Unsworth novel "Morality Play", about a troupe of traveling actors who inadvertently pull the lid off corruption in a small village and end up forever changing the scope of their chosen art form in the process.
Ironically, the Paul McGuigan film stumbles in the third act and ultimately falls prey to the very theatricality that its characters were attempting to move beyond, stranding an able ensemble led by Willem Dafoe and Paul Bettany.
Even if it fails to make good on all that promise, "The Reckoning" still deserves attention for its noble intentions, but it's going to be a true test of Paramount Classics' marketing abilities to make that happen given the picture's tough-to-categorize genre.
Bettany plays Nicholas, a young priest on the run from the authorities and a shadowy past (adultery would appear to play a part) who takes refuge with a group of itinerant actors led by the charismatic Martin (Dafoe).
An unplanned detour takes the troupe to a rather ominous town that is in the midst of sentencing a mysterious woman (Elvira Minguez) to hang for the strangling death of a young boy.
Despite the prevailing dark mood, Martin determines that the show must go on, but at the last minute, rather than putting on yet another biblical drama, he instead decides to tell the story of the murdered boy.
The gambit, while effectively setting the stage for what will later become known as the morality play, ignites a series of social fireworks leading to a showdown between Bettany's Nicholas and the town's power-crazed potentate, Robert de Guise (a scenery masticating Vincent Cassel).
Director McGuigan, who made his mark with "Gangster No. 1", adroitly layers on all the period atmosphere while establishing a decidedly nonstuffy visual energy thanks to extensive hand-held camera work by former Barry Levinson collaborator Peter Sova.
While McGuigan isn't able to find a satisfactory solution to the later tone problems in screenwriter Mark Mills' adaptation, he certainly coaxes some fine work from his players, also including the always reliable Brian Cox as one of the more cantankerous members of Dafoe's motley crew.
The Reckoning
Paramount Classics
Paramount Classics presents a Renaissance Films production in association with Kanzaman/MDA Films
Credits:
Director: Paul McGuigan
Producer: Caroline Wood
Screenwriter: Mark Mills
Adapted from the novel "Morality Play" by: Barry Unsworth
Executive producers: Stephen Evans, Angus Finney
Director of photography: Peter Sova
Production designer: Andrew McAlpine
Editor: Andrew Hulme
Costume designer: Yvonne Blake
Music: Adrian Lee, Mark Mancina
Cast:
Martin: Willem Dafoe
Nicholas: Paul Bettany
Sarah: Gina McKee
Tobias: Brian Cox
Damian: Ewen Bremner
Robert de Guise: Vincent Cassel
Stephen: Simon McBurney
Martha: Elvira Minguez
Running time -- 110 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Friday, March 5
It's not every week that a bona fide medieval murder mystery rolls into town, especially one with a plot line that could have been ripped from today's headlines while remaining true to its 14th century English setting.
That's the neat trick of "The Reckoning", a beguiling, multilayered drama based on the Barry Unsworth novel "Morality Play", about a troupe of traveling actors who inadvertently pull the lid off corruption in a small village and end up forever changing the scope of their chosen art form in the process.
Ironically, the Paul McGuigan film stumbles in the third act and ultimately falls prey to the very theatricality that its characters were attempting to move beyond, stranding an able ensemble led by Willem Dafoe and Paul Bettany.
Even if it fails to make good on all that promise, "The Reckoning" still deserves attention for its noble intentions, but it's going to be a true test of Paramount Classics' marketing abilities to make that happen given the picture's tough-to-categorize genre.
Bettany plays Nicholas, a young priest on the run from the authorities and a shadowy past (adultery would appear to play a part) who takes refuge with a group of itinerant actors led by the charismatic Martin (Dafoe).
An unplanned detour takes the troupe to a rather ominous town that is in the midst of sentencing a mysterious woman (Elvira Minguez) to hang for the strangling death of a young boy.
Despite the prevailing dark mood, Martin determines that the show must go on, but at the last minute, rather than putting on yet another biblical drama, he instead decides to tell the story of the murdered boy.
The gambit, while effectively setting the stage for what will later become known as the morality play, ignites a series of social fireworks leading to a showdown between Bettany's Nicholas and the town's power-crazed potentate, Robert de Guise (a scenery masticating Vincent Cassel).
Director McGuigan, who made his mark with "Gangster No. 1", adroitly layers on all the period atmosphere while establishing a decidedly nonstuffy visual energy thanks to extensive hand-held camera work by former Barry Levinson collaborator Peter Sova.
While McGuigan isn't able to find a satisfactory solution to the later tone problems in screenwriter Mark Mills' adaptation, he certainly coaxes some fine work from his players, also including the always reliable Brian Cox as one of the more cantankerous members of Dafoe's motley crew.
The Reckoning
Paramount Classics
Paramount Classics presents a Renaissance Films production in association with Kanzaman/MDA Films
Credits:
Director: Paul McGuigan
Producer: Caroline Wood
Screenwriter: Mark Mills
Adapted from the novel "Morality Play" by: Barry Unsworth
Executive producers: Stephen Evans, Angus Finney
Director of photography: Peter Sova
Production designer: Andrew McAlpine
Editor: Andrew Hulme
Costume designer: Yvonne Blake
Music: Adrian Lee, Mark Mancina
Cast:
Martin: Willem Dafoe
Nicholas: Paul Bettany
Sarah: Gina McKee
Tobias: Brian Cox
Damian: Ewen Bremner
Robert de Guise: Vincent Cassel
Stephen: Simon McBurney
Martha: Elvira Minguez
Running time -- 110 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
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