Pulp Fiction‘s Uma Thurman and Bridgerton‘s Phoebe Dynevor are going to be serving up a steamy secret love story in the upcoming period drama The Housekeeper.
Two-time Oscar winner Sir Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs, The Father) will also star in the film, directed by Richard Eyre. The film is being produced by Julia Taylor-Stanley and Kevin Loader.
In the gloomy landscape of 1930s Cornwall, UK, The Housekeeper is set mainly within the walls of the Manderville Hall, according to an exclusive report from Variety. Thee stately home is owned by the widowed Lord DeWithers (Hopkins).
Danni (Thurman), a housekeeper at the estate, unexpectedly catches the eye of the young novelist Daphne Du Maurier (Dynevor), who is visiting Manderville Hall.
The strangers step into an all-consuming romantic and sexual encounter with a dramatic twist. Following their affair, Danni is appalled to discover that she inspired the character Mrs. Danvers in Du Maurier’s classic work Rebecca.
The film combines the true story of Daphne Du Maurier, the famed novelist and playwright who wrote Rebecca in 1938, and a fictional take on the inspiration behind the novel.
The script was written by bestselling novelist Rose Tremain, inspired by her own short story and upcoming novel, which both turn Rebecca on its head.
“Rose Tremain’s story grapples with love, fear, fiction, desire, ambition, death and legacy — perhaps epic, whilst providing us with the delicacy of most complex, nuanced characters and unexpected shifts in audience sympathy,” Eyre said in a statement. “The cast and I hold in our palm a story as rich and turbulent as the landscape that it inhabits, with Manderville Hall holding secrets and emotional intrigue within its historic walls.”
In the original novel, an unnamed woman marries a widower and comes to live on his estate, but is struggling in the shadow of Rebecca, his deceased wife. The housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, is furiously loyal to Rebecca and is hateful to the narrator.
The Housekeeper will offer a more sympathetic approach to Mrs. Danvers character and play on the trope of jealousy and abandonment.
The film is expected to be released in 2025.
