A lot has changed since Domhnall Gleeson and Lenny Abrahamson made the quirky and great “Frank.” The former has been launched into both blockbuster and Oscar season glory this fall with “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and “Brooklyn” (not to mention his key role in the breakout sci-fi “Ex Machina“), while the latter is also angling for awards with his moving, and very well received, “Room.” But the destinies of the pair are set to align again.
Baz Bamigboye reports that Gleeson will star in Abrahamson’s next film, “The Little Stranger.” An adaptation of the acclaimed best-seller by Sarah Waters, with a screenplay by Lucinda Coxon (“The Danish Girl“), the film is a ghost story set in a crumbling mansion during Britain’s postwar years. Here’s the book synopsis:
One postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, Dr. Faraday, the son of a maid who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country physician, is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once impressive and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. Its owners—mother, son, and daughter—are struggling to keep pace with a changing society, as well as with conflicts of their own. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr. Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become intimately entwined with his.
Production on the film will begin next summer, and it’s been fascinating to watch Abrahamson jump from genre to genre, so we’ll be eager to see what he does here.