Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence first became attached to an adaptation of author Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites back in 2013 with her The Hunger Games helmer Gary Ross attached to direct. Now Variety is reporting that director Luca Guadagnino, hot off the Oscar buzz for Call Me by Your Name, will direct Lawrence in the true crime period piece for Sony’s TriStar Pictures.
Published in the summer of 2013, Burial Rites is officially described as follows:
In northern Iceland, 1829, Agnes Magnúsdóttir is condemned to death for her part in the brutal murder of two men. Agnes is sent to wait out the time leading to her execution on the farm of District Officer Jón Jónsson, his wife and their two daughters. Horrified to have a convicted murderess in their midst, the family avoids speaking with Agnes. Only Tóti, the young assistant reverend appointed as Agness spiritual guardian, is compelled to try to understand her, as he attempts to salvage her soul. As the summer months fall away to winter and the hardships of rural life force the household to work side by side, Agness ill-fated tale of longing and betrayal begins to emerge. And as the days to her execution draw closer, the question burns: did she or didnt she?
Lawrence will play the Magnúsdóttir role. Allison Shearmur (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Hunger Games franchise) and Justine Ciarrocchi will produce alongside Lawrence, with Gary Ross and Jerry Kalajian executive producing.
“Luca is a rare talent. His movies capture an exquisite sense of place inextricably linked to the emotional state of the complex characters he creates,” TriStar president Hannah Minghella said in a statement. “I can’t imagine a more thrilling partnership than Luca and Jennifer coming together to bring Agnes’ beautiful and tragic story to life.”
“Luca Guadagnino is a masterful storyteller who brilliantly captures the nuance of the human condition in his films. I cannot wait for him to bring his original voice to the raw, visceral brutality, and poetry of Hannah Kent’s haunting true story of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last woman to be publicly executed in Iceland for the murder of two men,” Shearmur said in a statement. “Jennifer Lawrence, Justine Ciarrocchi, and I love this project and we could not be more excited by the way it is coming together with Hannah Minghella’s passion and drive to get it done at TriStar.”
Guadagnino currently has the remake of the horror classic Suspiria in post production, and the thriller Rio with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jake Gyllenhaal in pre-production. He’s also announced a potential Call Me by Your Name sequel.
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
