Thomas Vinterberg To Direct 'Far From The Madding Crowd,' Carey Mulligan Eyed For Lead

Carey MulliganThomas Vinterberg has certainly been on an interesting journey since breaking out with "Festen" nearly fifteen years ago. While that film put him on the map, he struggled to follow it up, with audience and critical indifference meeting subsequent efforts like "Dear Wendy," "It's All About Love" and "Submarino." But this spring, Vinterberg once again wowed Cannes with "The Hunt," a searing drama starring Mads Mikkelsen (who took home Best Actor) as a man wrongfully accused of sexually abusing a young girl. And it hasn't taken the director long to leverage that success into a potentially exciting new project.

Vinterberg is in talks to direct an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's famed "Far From The Madding Crowd." No stranger to adapting classic literature, David Nicholls (the Ralph Fiennes/Helena Bonham Carter "Great Expectations" and the 2008 Brit TV mini-series "Tess of the D'Urbervilles") is penning the script that tells the tale of Bathsheba Everdene who is courted by three men: Gabriel Oak, a shepherd; Sergeant Troy, a handsome soldier; and William Boldwood, a farm owner. And who will play Bathsheba? According to The Wrap, producers are "interested" in Carey Mulligan for the role, but it seems it's early days just yet.

Hardy's tale has been brought to the big screen before, most notably in John Schlesinger's 1967 film starring Julie Christie, Terence Stamp, Peter Finch and Alan Bates. And in 1998, ITV in the U.K. brought a four part mini-series to the small screen. But unlike some literary works which have seen multiple incarnations, a new take would certainly be welcome. And Vinterberg and Mulligan? Yeah, sign us up.

But we'll see how this all plays. Riding high on "The Hunt," Vinterberg will likely have more than a few more opportunities cross his path.