Having first worked with director Lenny Abrahamson in 2014’s critically acclaimed Frank, Domhnall Gleeson will be balancing out his role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens with Abrahamson’s next project – The Little Stranger. The director is currently riding a wave of success following the enthusiastic reception to his current release, Room and, like that film, The Little Stranger is also adapted from a hit novel.
Written by author Sarah Waters in 2009, it’s a ghost story set in 1940s England.
“One post-war summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, Dr Faraday, the son of a maid who has built a life of quiet respectability as a county physician, is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once impressive and handsome, is now in decline – its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. Its owners – mother, son, and daughter – are struggling to keep pace with a changing society, as well as conflicts of their own. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become intimately intertwined with his.”
The Little Stranger will be adapted for the screen by Lucinda Coxon, who is herself currently enjoying critical acclaim for her most recent adapted screenplay, The Danish Girl. The combination of Coxon and Abrahamson – working together to visualize this gothic story – is an exciting prospect indeed, as neither have really tackled the horror genre before. While it is not yet officially clear which role Gleeson will be playing, the story is narrated by its male lead, so we can almost certainly assume this part will be his. There is some time to wait, however, as production is not due to begin until 2016.
