Chlöe Bailey, Tosin Cole, Olivia Colman and Woody Harrelson are set to star in Girl From the North Country, adapted from the Tony Award-winning Broadway show of the same name inspired by the songs of Bob Dylan.
The movie adaptation is written and directed by Conor McPherson, the playwright behind the original Broadway musical.
Graham Broadbent and Pete Czerninare produce under the banner of their award-winning Blueprint Pictures (The Banshees of Inisherin, Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri).
CAA Media Finance will represent the film’s domestic sales with Rocket Science launching international sales at the upcoming European Film Market during the Berlin Film Festival.
The original Broadway show reimagines 20 legendary Bob Dylan songs including “Forever Young,” “All Along the Watchtower,” “Hurricane,” “Slow Train Coming,” “Make You Feel My Love” and “Like a Rolling Stone.”
Set in 1934 against the backdrop of Duluth, MN, during the Great Depression, the drama revolves around a group of wayward travelers whose lives intersect in a guesthouse filled with music, life and hope.
Things are spiraling out of control for proprietor Nick Laine (Harrelson). His wife Elizabeth (Colman) is suffering from dementia. The bank is foreclosing on their home. Their adopted daughter, Marianne (Bailey), has a closely guarded secret that no one can explain.
When escaped convict Joe Scott (Cole) seeks shelter at the guesthouse, a relationship develops between Marianne and Joe that will change everything for everyone forever in a timeless love story.
Dylan said of the original show: “To be associated with Conor is one of the highlights of my professional life. It goes without saying the man is a genius for putting this thing together and I’m thrilled to be a part of the experience. My songs couldn’t be in better hands. The play had me crying at the end. I can’t even say why. When the curtain came down, I was stunned. I really was.”
McPherson said it was a huge privilege to have won Dylan’s trust.
“But working with this incredible cast to bring these characters to life is almost beyond imagining,” he added. “I’m also especially thrilled to be working with Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, and the whole Blueprint team who have given cinema audiences some of the greatest movies of recent times.”
Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter-musician Bailey is best known as one half of the musical duo Chloe x Halle and for her work on ABC’s Grown-ish and Black-ish, and most recently in the feature film Jane, starring Melissa Leo.
She can next be seen in Will Packer and Tim Story’s feature Praise This, the Russell Crowe and Sam Worthington-starrer The Georgetown Project, and the Amazon Prime Video series Swarm from Donald Glover.
Cole is currently filming the lead role in Supacell for Netflix and also the Untitled Bob Marley Project directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green. His recent work includes Chinoye Chukwu’s acclaimed feature Till in which he played civil rights hero Medger Evers. He also stars in Warner Bros’ reboot of House Party from producers Maverick Carter and LeBron James; and in AMC’s 61st Street, created by Peter Moffat and starring Courtney B. Vance.
Colman can currently be seen in Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light. Upcoming feature credits include Paul King’s Wonka alongside Timothée Chalamet as well as Thea Sharrock’s Wicked Little Letters with Jessie Buckley.
For TV, she will soon be seen in Great Expectations and Secret Invasion. Recent projects include The Lost Daughter, The Father and The Favourite; as well as Heartstopper, Landscapers and The Crown. Her work in film and television has garnered her Academy Award, British Academy of Film and Television awards as well as Emmy recognitions.
Harrelson was recently seen in the Ruben Östlund satire Triangle of Sadness, which won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or and is up for Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards. He has been nominated for three Oscars, the most recent recognizing his performance in Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, as well as nine Emmys for his work on True Detective and Cheers.
Upcoming credits include Focus Features’ Special Olympics comedy Champions; Searchlight drama Suncoast; HBO political miniseries White House Plumbers, about the Watergate scandal; and Apple Original Films’ space race feature Project Artemis.
McPherson is an Olivier Award-winning theater director and playwright who has been nominated for five Tony awards and a Grammy Award.
He wrote and directed the Broadway musical Girl from the North Country which will serve as the source material for the film, as well as multi award winning plays, The Seafarer, The Night Alive and The Weir.
Beyond the stage, McPherson is known for his screenplays I Went Down, the BBC series Paula, and for writing and directing his Ireland seaside pictures Saltwater and The Eclipse.
Bailey is repped by CAA. Cole is represented by CAA, Curtis Brown Group, Sherpa Management and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole. Colman is repped by CAA, United Agents, and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole. Harrelson is represented by 7 Deuce Entertainment and Ziffren Brittenham.
McPherson is repped by Curtis Brown Group.
Rocket Science’s EFM slate also includes Michael Gracey’s Better Man; and Alex Winter’s The Adults, starring Evan Rachel Wood, Josh Gad and Anthony Carrigan.
Rocket Science is also behind Peter Farrelly’s Ricky Stanicky starring Zac Efron and John Cena, which Amazon will stream on Prime Video in 240 countries and territories worldwide at release.
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