After scoring an Emmy nomination for her turn in the hit HBO dramedy Succession, Sarah Snook has found her next film project as the lead star in a new adaptation of Jane Austen’s dramatic novel Persuasion, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Published in 1817, the final fully written novel by Austen follows Anne Elliot who is reunited with young naval officer Frederick Wentworth many years after turning down his marriage proposal and must navigate English society when he returns from war wealthy and promoted to captain and considers her regretful decision and the possibility of unrequited love.
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Snook has signed on to star as Elliot for director Mahalia Belo, with Jessica Swale (Summerland) attached to adapt the script. Alison Own and Debra Hayward, whose previous credits include the well-received period drama Suffragette and acclaimed coming-of-age comedy How to Build a Girl, are set to produce the project through their Monumental Pictures production banner.
Searchlight Pictures is co-financing the film with BBC Films, with Searchlight UK’s head of development and production Katie Goodson-Thomas set to oversee the project alongside senior development exec Pete Spencer and manager Apolline Berty.
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Should the film be a theatrical release, it would mark the first such adaptation of Austen’s novel after having received two miniseries and two made-for-TV feature adaptations from the BBC and ITV, though the 1995 version starring Ciarán Hinds (Justice League) got a theatrical exhibition in the US.
In addition to HBO’s Succession, Snook has also recently been seen in the Seth Rogen-starring comedy An American Pickle on HBO Max and will next be seen in the drama Pieces of a Woman, which was recently acquired by Netflix after its acclaimed debut at the Venice International Film Festival.
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