- Get link
- X
- Other Apps
And he may be just the perfect director for this intimate story.
Here's the publisher's take on On Chesil Beach and keep in mind that at one point, Carey Mulligan was talked about as being the writer's first choice for the role of Florence. [update: replaced by Saoirse Ronan]
A novel of remarkable depth and poignancy from one of the most acclaimed writers of our time.
It is July 1962. Florence is a talented musician who dreams of a career on the concert stage and of the perfect life she will create with Edward, an earnest young history student at University College of London, who unexpectedly wooed and won her heart. Newly married that morning, both virgins, Edward and Florence arrive at a hotel on the Dorset coast. At dinner in their rooms they struggle to suppress their worries about the wedding night to come. Edward, eager for rapture, frets over Florence’s response to his advances and nurses a private fear of failure, while Florence’s anxieties run deeper: she is overcome by sheer disgust at the idea of physical contact, but dreads disappointing her husband when they finally lie down together in the honeymoon suite.
Ian McEwan has caught with understanding and compassion the innocence of Edward and Florence at a time when marriage was presumed to be the outward sign of maturity and independence. On Chesil Beach is another masterwork from McEwan—a story of lives transformed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken.
Mike Newell, who is otherwise engaged right now, working on Great Expectations with Helena Bonham Carter and Jeremy Irvine, has directed some other small scale films we love vis a vis Four Weddings and a Funeral and Mona Lisa Smile. Yes, he also met Harry and directed Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, before going on to make a couple of noted disasters Love in the Time of Cholera and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. But looking back at Four Weddings and Mona Lisa, well, you've gotta hope he might be returning to his roots and give this novella its due. Apparently it's supposed to get back on track and in production by early summer of next year. Will Carey Mulligan still be in the mix? She's such a gifted, nuanced actress I tend to agree with author McEvan. If you've read the book, who do you envision as Florence and Edward?
UPDATE: November 2017
Scratch that. Scratch all of that. So much has changed since 2011. People have gotten older. People have moved on. Mike Newell is out and Dominic Cooke is in. BUT we are still excited because now the On Chesil Beach movie starring Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle as Florence and Edward, based on a screenplay by the author himself, is actually finally coming out. The dates to watch for are January 19, 2018 in the UK and June 15, 2018 here in the UK.
Here's the publisher's take on On Chesil Beach and keep in mind that at one point, Carey Mulligan was talked about as being the writer's first choice for the role of Florence. [update: replaced by Saoirse Ronan]A novel of remarkable depth and poignancy from one of the most acclaimed writers of our time.
It is July 1962. Florence is a talented musician who dreams of a career on the concert stage and of the perfect life she will create with Edward, an earnest young history student at University College of London, who unexpectedly wooed and won her heart. Newly married that morning, both virgins, Edward and Florence arrive at a hotel on the Dorset coast. At dinner in their rooms they struggle to suppress their worries about the wedding night to come. Edward, eager for rapture, frets over Florence’s response to his advances and nurses a private fear of failure, while Florence’s anxieties run deeper: she is overcome by sheer disgust at the idea of physical contact, but dreads disappointing her husband when they finally lie down together in the honeymoon suite.
Ian McEwan has caught with understanding and compassion the innocence of Edward and Florence at a time when marriage was presumed to be the outward sign of maturity and independence. On Chesil Beach is another masterwork from McEwan—a story of lives transformed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken.
UPDATE: November 2017
Scratch that. Scratch all of that. So much has changed since 2011. People have gotten older. People have moved on. Mike Newell is out and Dominic Cooke is in. BUT we are still excited because now the On Chesil Beach movie starring Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle as Florence and Edward, based on a screenplay by the author himself, is actually finally coming out. The dates to watch for are January 19, 2018 in the UK and June 15, 2018 here in the UK.