TriStar Nabs Hot WWII Novel ‘The Nightingale’ (Exclusive)

TriStar Pictures has preemptively optioned the hot best-selling novel The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.

Hannah’s book is an epic, sweeping love story following two sisters living in France at the beginning of World War II. The older sister, Vianne Mauriac, says goodbye to her husband, who’s heading off to fight in the war. She and her daughter become prisoners in their own home after it’s requisitioned by German forces, and Vianne is faced with making impossible choices to save her family. Her younger sister, Isabelle, is an 18-year-old girl who falls for a young man who eventually betrays her. She then joins the Resistance and begins risking her life to save others.

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The book, which hit shelves on Feb. 3, has become a breakout hit, garnering strong reviews and remaining on the New York Times Top 10 hardcover fiction bestseller list for the past six weeks.

Elizabeth Cantillon will produce the adaptation, which will center on the female voices that are rarely the center of a War-set drama.

Hannah has written more than 20 novels, including Winter Garden, True Colors and Firefly Lane. Her novel Home Front was optioned for a film by 1492 Films, with Chris Columbus attached direct. She’s repped by CAA and Jane Rotrosen Agency.

TriStar’s other upcoming projects include Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, which Ang Lee is directing, and The Walk, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt.