MGM Sets Thea Sharrock To Helm ‘Me Before You’

EXCLUSIVE: MGM has set acclaimed theatre director Thea Sharrock to direct Me Before You, the adaptation of the Jojo Moyes best-selling novel. Karen Rosenfelt is producing what would be Sharrock’s feature debut.

The novel tells the story of Lou, a small-town girl caught between dead-end jobs, and Will, a success all his life who finds himself wheelchair-bound after an accident. He finds no reason to live until they meet when he hires her as his caretaker for six months, and she becomes determined to prove to him life is worth living. They head for a series of adventures together, which changes each of them. The author wrote the first draft of the script, and (500) Years Of Summer scribes Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber did the most recent draft.

Sharrock’s TV directing credits include Sam Mendes’ BBC miniseries The Hollow Crown with Tom Hiddleston and the BBC series Call The Midwife. Sharrock is a prolific theatre director whose credits include Daniel Radcliffe’s 2008 Broadway debut Equus, The Sunshine Boys with Danny DeVito, the revival of The Misanthrope with Keira Knightley and Damien Lewis, and the Olivier Award-winning revival After The Dance. She’ll next direct Kevin Spacey as Clarence Darrow in the Old Vic production of Darrow. At 21, she became the youngest artistic director in the UK at London’s Southwark Playhouse.

MGM motion picture group president Jonathan Glickman is overseeing the project with Cassidy Lange. Neustadter & Weber most recently scripted The Spectacular Now, The Rules Of Civility and the upcoming The Fault In Our Stars. Sharrock is repped by CAA and United Agents, Moyes is represented by Curtis Brown, and Neustadter & Weber by CAA and Kaplan/Perrone.