Saoirse Ronan heads back to wartime Britain.
More Cannes project news, this time that Saiorse Ronan will star in an adaptation of “Testament of Youth,” Vera Brittain’s memoir of World War I. Juliette Towhidi, who wrote “Calendar Girls” is doing the adaptation. Deadline didn’t include a director’s name in the announcement.
“Testament of Youth” is much better known in Britain than in the US, mostly because it’s about World War I, which is much better known in Britain than the US. Brittain tells how she went from a student at Oxford to a war nurse, and describes the terrible toll the war took on her and her generation; personally, she lost her brother, fiancee, and several close friends in the war. I had never heard of it until I spent a year at a British University, where I’m glad I was assigned to read it. I highly recommend it to anyone who’s interested in that period.
Ronan first won notice in the period film “Atonement,” but has since gone off in all sorts of directions: action for “Hanna,” and sci-fi for the upcoming “The Host.” She also has “Justin and the Knights of Valour” completed, and “The Order of Seven” and “How I Live Now” lined up in pre-production, followed by Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah.” There’s a lot more of Ronan coming along over the next few years.
