STG News
Filming has begun on The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, the big screen adaptation of Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows’ international bestselling epistolary novel of the same name. Lily James stars as journalist Juliet Ashton who forms a bond with a secret book society formed during German occupation of the Channel Islands during WWII.
Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) is directing from a script written by Don Roos (Marley & Me, The Opposite of Sex), Kevin Hood (Becoming Jane, A Royal Night Out) and Tom Bezucha (The Family Stone, Monte Carlo). Paula Mazur and Mitchell Kaplan from The Mazur/Kaplan Company (The Man Who Invented Christmas) and Graham Broadbent and Pete Czernin from Blueprint Pictures (Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, In Bruges) will produce.
Lily James (Cinderella, War & Peace), who plays Ashton, is joined by Michiel Huisman (The Age of Adeline, Game of Thrones), Glen Powell (Everybody Wants Some, Hidden Figures), Matthew Goode (The Imitation Game, Downton Abbey), Jessica Brown Findlay (Victor Frankenstein, Downton Abbey) with Tom Courtenay (45 Years, Doctor Zhivago) and Penelope Wilton (The BFG, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel).
STUDIOCANAL is financing the project and will distribute in its own territories, the UK, France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. The company will also handle all other international rights.
In the aftermath of WWII, free-spirited journalist Juliet Ashton (Lily James) forms a life-changing bond with the delightful and eccentric Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, when she decides to write about the book club they formed during wartime.
Published by Random House, the novel was a New York Times bestseller and sold 7.5 million copies in 37 territories.
Lily James
Blueprint Pictures is a London-based production company founded by producers Graham Broadbent and Pete Czernin. Blueprint produced The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and its sequel The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. They have two films slated for release in 2017: James Marsh’s Untitled Donald Crowhurst Film starring Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz; and Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, starring Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell.
Mazur/Kaplan is a book-centric production company founded by producer Paula Mazur and independent bookseller Mitchell Kaplan. They have recently wrapped production on The Man Who Invented Christmas, directed by Bharat Nalluri, starring Dan Stevens and Christopher Plummer. Next up is The Silent Wife with Nicole Kidman and All The Bright Places starring Elle Fanning and directed by Miguel Arteta.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society is set to release in New Zealand in 2018.