Nick Hornby has had quite a prolific career in Hollywood over the span of the last 15 years. His novels “About A Boy” and “High Fidelity” were both adapted into big screen productions, allowing Hugh Grant and John Cusack to both deliver some respective career-best performances. He penned the screenplay for the Carey Mulligan breakout film “An Education,” the 2014 Reese Witherspoon drama “Wild” and was nominated for his screenplay in last years sleeper hit and weepy romance “Brooklyn” starring Saoirse Ronan and Emory Cohen. You might not know his name or read his books, but there’s more than enough likelihood that in some capacity you’ve seen one of his projects.
For his next outing after his BBC series “Love, Nina” it looks like his novel “Juliet, Naked” will be getting the big screen treatment. According to Deadline, Tamara Jenkins (“The Savages”) and Jim Taylor (“Sideways”) have adapted the script from Hornby’s book with Phil Alden Robinson and Evgenia Peretz doing revisions.
On top of this, the film has lined up a stacked cast including the always stand-out Rose Byrne along with Chris O’Dowd and Ethan Hawke. While the latter of the three has been offered his fair share of certified hit roles it would be nice to see the two former actors be given roles that stretch their strengths and further throw them into the spotlight.
Byrne would be playing Annie as the girlfriend of music obsessed boyfriend Duncan (O’Dowd) and the rock star he idolizes, Tucker Crowe, would be played by Hawke. The novel has been compared to “High Fidelity,” one of Hornby’s biggest hits and “Juliet, Naked” could prove to have similar appeal. Jesse Peretz (“My Idiot Brother”) is attached to direct and with such an impressive history of film adaptations behind him, Hornby could just about guarantee yet another success with “Juliet, Naked.”
