Saoirse Ronan to star in adaptation of Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach
It’ll be the Oscar-nominee’s second film based on a book by the author after 2007’s Atonement
Saoirse Ronan is to star in a film based on Ian McEwan’s novel On Chesil Beach, the actress’s second adaptation of the author’s work.
In 2007 Ronan appeared in Joe Wright’s big-screen film version of McEwan’s Atonement, playing young Bryony, for which she earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
The story of On Chesil Beach takes place in 1962, following newlyweds Edward Mayhew and Florence Ponting on their honeymoon in Dorset. Ronan will play the latter, a character who’s struggling with the prospect of sexual intimacy and the couple’s wildly different social upbringings: she the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, he the son of a schoolmaster.
The Hollow Crown’s Dominic Cooke is to direct.
The film is one of a number of projects the actress is working on. She’s currently nominated for her second Oscar – this time for Best Actress – for 2015’s Brooklyn, and has Loving Vincent (with Aidan Turner and Douglas Booth) and The Seagull (co-starring Elisabeth Moss) set for release later this year.