‘State Of Wonder’: William Oldroyd & Philippa Goslett Board Adaptation

EXCLUSIVE: Lady Macbeth director William Oldroyd and How To Talk To Girls At Parties screenwriter Philippa Goslett have signed on to eOne and King Bee Productions’ TV adaptation of Ann Patchett’s novel State of Wonder.

Novelist Maile Meloy, who has written books including Liars and Saints and The Apothecary, has also signed up to the drama project to serve as a consultant.

Goslett is coming off the back of Rooney Mara-fronted Mary Magdalene, while it is the first high-profile TV project for Oldroyd, who scored a number of BAFTA noms for his debut feature, the Florence Pugh-fronted Lady Macbeth.

The Designated Survivor studio and Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola’s indie have locked in the creative team after securing the rights to the project, in a competitive situation, last year. They are developing it as an event series.

In State of Wonder, Dr Marina Singh journeys into the depths of the Amazon rain forest in search of her former mentor, veteran scientist Dr Annick Swenson, who has vanished while conducting research into the prolonged fertility of the women of an isolated Amazonian tribe. As Marina embarks upon this uncertain odyssey, she will be forced to surrender herself to the lush but forbidding world that awaits her in the darkest reaches of the rain forest.

It is being shepherded by eOne’s Head of Scripted – UK, Television Polly Williams and newly-appointed Thomas Daley, VP of Scripted – UK, Television. The latter joined the company’s London team earlier this year to work with Williams on its burgeoning slate of high-profile television projects being developed and produced in of the UK. He was previously a producer on MGM’s Oscar Isaac and Ben Kingsley-fronted Operation Finale and was a director at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre.

State of Wonder was published in 2011 by Harper in the U.S. and Bloomsbury Publishing in the UK. The novel was nominated for the 2011 Wellcome Trust Book Prize and shortlisted for the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction. Patchett is the author of seven novels, The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, The Magician’s Assistant, Bel Canto, Run, State of Wonder and Commonwealth. Goslett is represented by Casarotto Ramsay & Associates.

Mortimer is repped by UTA and Lighthouse Management & Media.