Simon Curtis Headshot - P 2012
Getty ImagesSimon Curtis, who most recently directed My Week With Marilyn, is in talks to helm The Buccaneers, an adaptation of Edith Wharton’s high-society novel being produced by BBC Films and Ruby Films.
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Buccaneers was Wharton’s last novel and unfinished when she died in 1937. Wharton scholar Marion Mainwaring completed the book in 1993. In the mid-’90s, BBC produced a miniseries adaptation and had the screenwriter come up with yet another ending.
Heidi Thomas wrote the script for the big-screen version.
Like in many of Wharton’s works, high society is the setting for Buccaneers. The story follows five wealthy American girls who, unable to find mates in New York, set off for England in search of well-off gentleman bachelors.
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Ruby Films is producing Saving Mr. Banks, the Tom Hanks–Emma Thompson drama in production at Disney. Other recent credits include last year’s Cary Fukunaga adaptation of Jane Eyre and Tamara Drewe, starring Gemma Arterton.
Curtis is a British TV helmer who broke into movies with last year’s acclaimed Marilyn, starring Michelle Williams in an Oscar-nominated role as Marilyn Monroe. He is repped by UTA, Anonymous Content and the U.K.’s Independent Talent Group.
