It’s been eight years since filmmaker and Academy Award-nominee Sarah Polley made a feature-length film (2012’s incredible “Stories We Tell,” which we put high on our list of the Best Documentaries of the last decade). To be fair, she wrote and executive-produced 2017’s mini-series “Alias Grace“ and finally resurfaced this year directing episodes of CBC Comedy short series “Hey Lady!” But she’s back for real in the feature space and teaming up with a bevy of talent. MGM’s Orion Pictures and Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B has set Polley to write and direct a feature adaptation of Miriam Toews’ bestselling novel “Women Talking.” It gets better; Academy Award-winner Frances McDormand (“Three Billboards“) will star.
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McDormand, who is coming off of a terrific performance in “Nomadland,” and a likely, another upcoming Best Actress nomination, brought the project initially to Plan B after acquiring the rights via her Hear/Say production shingle.
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“Women Talking” follows a group of women in an isolated religious colony as they struggle to reconcile their faith with a series of horrific sexual assaults committed by the colony’s men. Margaret Atwood, author of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” said of the book, “This amazing, sad, shocking, but touching novel, based on a real-life event, could be right out of The Handmaid’s Tale.”
Published in 2018, the novel was named a Best Book of the Year By The New York Times Book Review, NPR.Org, The Washington Post, Slate, Publishers Weekly, and many others.
“We are thrilled to continue our relationship with Plan B with Women Talking. Sarah and Frances collaborating to bring this incredible book to life on the big screen is something we are excited to be part of,” said Michael De Luca, MGM’s Film Group Chairman, and others from MGM said in a joint statement.
Polley is one of our favorite filmmakers, but obviously hasn’t worked in a while. She is known for “Take This Waltz,” which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2010, and “Stories We Tell” debuted there in 2013, going on to win several critics groups prizes for Best Documentary of the year. She also was nominated for an Oscar for her writing of “Away From Her” in 2006.
McDormand appears next in the aforementioned “Nomadland” and will turn up in at least two 2021 films: Joel Coen’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” and Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch.” She is a five-time Oscar nominee, winning for her first time (Best Actress) in 2018 for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”
