Audrey Diwan to Direct Adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s ‘The Marriage Portrait’ for Element Pictures, Wildside (EXCLUSIVE)
Audrey Diwan is attached to direct “The Marriage Portrait,” based on the novel by award-winning Northern Irish writer Maggie O’Farrell, best known for “Hamnet.”
Variety hears that the project will see the fast-rising French auteur team with two of Europe’s leading arthouse producers in Ireland’s Element Pictures (which has three films in Cannes’ official selection this year) and Italy’s Wildside (which has competition title “Limonov: The Ballad”). Film4 helped develop the feature.
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Set in 1500s Renaissance Florence, “The Marriage Portrait” — which was published in 2022 — follows the fictional tale of young duchess Lucrezia de’ Medici, a sheltered 16-year-old who has spent her life locked inside the city’s grandest palazzo. But when her husband takes her on an unexpected visit to a country villa, it occurs to her that he has a sinister purpose — he intends to kill her.
Diwan, who has just completed the post-production of her adaptation of the novel ”Emmanuelle” with Noemie Merlant and Naomi Watts, will be writing the script with Marcia Romano, her co-scribe on Venice Golden Lion-winning film “Happening.”
Diwan tells Variety that she received the book from Element co-founder Ed Guiney, with whom she shares “similar tastes and sensibility.” “I was drawn to this novel that’s inspired by a true story and I envision it as a gothic fable with this castle and the atmosphere of fear,” she says, adding that she already has bold ideas for the project’s artistic direction.
In line with Diwan’s body of work, the feature will revolve around a woman’s journey and tackle similar themes of oppression and emancipation, but the filmmaker says she “won’t be walking in [her] own footsteps.” “I’m excited by the prospect of exploring new aesthetic and narrative grounds, creating a world, while continuing to mine topics that interest me,” says Diwan, who is also developing a French project based on an original idea.
“The Marriage Portrait” will mark the first co-production between Element, best-known for working with Yorgos Lanthimos on his last five features, including the recent multi-award winner “Poor Things” and this year’s Cannes competition entry “Kinds of Kindness,” and “The Young Pope” banner Wildside. Both companies are owned by Fremantle.
While Diwan may not be in Cannes as a director, she co-penned the screenplay for Gilles Lellouche’s competition entry “Beating Hearts.” “Emmanuelle” is set to open the San Sebastián Film Festival later in the year.
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