Sydney Sweeney Set To Star In and Produce Studiocanal’s Film Adaptation of CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY
Sydney Sweeney is lining up another high-profile project, this time stepping into the lead role and a producer credit on a new feature adaptation of Edith Wharton’s classic novel Custom of the Country.
The film is moving forward at Studiocanal in partnership with Rabbit’s Foot Films, with cameras expected to roll soon.
The project will be written and directed by Josie Rourke, who adapted the screenplay from Wharton’s novel. Rourke spoke passionately about the material and Sweeney’s casting when the announcement was made.
“Undine Spragg is the original dangerous woman. Edith Wharton’s character has forever fascinated, seduced and infuriated readers,” Rourke said in a release Wednesday announcing the project.
“The Custom of the Country was Wharton’s great American novel and Undine Spragg sweeps across America and through Europe at top speed, during a time of immense economic and social change.
“The book whistles with modernity and as I was writing this adaptation, Sydney Sweeney lived in my head as this iconic character — it’s as if Wharton sat down a century ago and wrote the role for her. I’m thrilled to be working with this luminous actor, Charles Finch, Alison Owen and Studiocanal to bring this novel to the screen.”
Sweeney will play Undine Spragg, described in the official logline as “a fiercely ambitious woman from the Midwest who strives for the social heights of turn-of-the-century New York.”
The character is further defined as someone who pushes relentlessly forward. “Armed with beauty, daring/hustle and sheer force of will/unwavering ambition, she battles an entrenched elite, fearlessly courting controversy, until love and fortune align.”
The film adds to what has already been a packed and successful year for Sweeney. She recently starred in The Housemaid, which crossed the $200 million mark at the global box office and has a sequel in development. She also earned strong notices for her dramatic turn as boxer Christy Martin in the biopic Christy.
For Rourke, the project marks another major film following her feature debut Mary Queen of Scots, which starred Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie for Focus Features.
Source: Deadline