Rebecca Ferguson is in talks to star opposite Hugh Bonneville in the upcoming film about the relationship between actress Patricia Neal and children’s author Roald Dahl. Swedish actor Ferguson would play Neal and Bonneville Dahl in the yet-to-be-titled project from Goldcrest Films.
Based on Stephen Michael Shearer’s novel “An Unquiet Life,” the film is written by John Hay and David Logan and set in New York, England and Los Angeles at the beginning of the 1960s. It shows Dahl’s struggles to write some of his most famous works and Neal’s return to acting with “Hud,” for which she won an Oscar.
Dahl was one of Britain’s most successful novelists, with bestsellers such as “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “James and the Giant Peach” and “The BFG,” all of which have adapted as feature films. Neal starred in Hollywood classics including “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
Ferguson is currently shooting “M:I 6 – Mission Impossible” with Tom Cruise, and her next film, “The Greatest Showman,” starring Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron, is on deck.
Goldcrest is financing, co-producing and overseeing global sales and distribution of the Dahl-Neal project. Elliot Jenkins is producing for Atticus Pictures and Pascal Degove for Goldcrest.
“In Rebecca we have been lucky to find someone who, like us, is committed to giving our story the widest possible appeal, having consistently brought global audiences to cinemas in a string of high-profile box office successes,” Degove said.
Jenkins added: “Patricia Neal was a remarkable woman who managed to maintain her career and win an Oscar while carrying her family through some enormous struggles. On every level her legacy will be safely preserved in Rebecca’s portrayal.”
Ferguson is repped by Tavistock Wood, ICM and Actors Scandinavia.
