Few would argue that Rosamund Pike stole the show in David Fincher’s psychological thriller Gone Girl, portraying an unhinged sociopath that still sends shivers down our spines to this day. Imagine our disappointment, then, when the Oscar-nominated actress followed up Fincher’s opus with middling thriller Return To Sender.
No matter, because Deadline reports that Pike is circling her next potential project, and it’s one that goes by the name Guernsey. Mike Newell of Four Weddings and a Funeral fame is behind the camera, and it’s understood that Pike is currently in contention to play the role of Juliet Ashton – a role that’s attracted the likes of Kate Winslet, Lily James and Rebecca Ferguson in recent times.
Billed as an adaptation of Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows’ best-seller, Guernsey is the name of a quaint island off the British coast, with the story chronicling Ashton’s unlikely friendship with its residents. Situated during World War II, the official synopsis of the novel describes the narrative as so:
‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’ takes place on the island of Guernsey, which is in the English channel, during the second World War when the island was occupied by the Germans. It’s about a group of eccentric locals and transplanted Londoners who come together at a particularly inauspicious moment to form a book club. It’s about the books that they read and how they grow to love one another and save one another during that time.”
Marley & Me scribe Don Roos is no board to pen the screenplay, giving some indication of the film’s underlying emotional beats. Meanwhile, Mitchell Kaplan and Paula Mazur will produce.
Should Rosamund Pike land the role for Guernsey, it’ll mark the actress’ third period drama on the horizon, given that she’s also attached to star in WWII drama A United Kingdom opposite David Oyelowo, not to mention Cedric Jimenez’s HHhH, itself revolving around a Nazi assassination ploy in the dying embers of the second world war.
