By Travis Johnson
Holliday Grainger (Tulip Fever, My Cousin Rachel) and Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development, Search Party) will star in an adaptation of Emma Jane Unsworth’s bestseller Animals, a book that has been described as “Withnail and I with girls.”
Sophie Hyde (52 Tuesdays, Life in Movement) will direct the project, from a screenlay by Unsworth. The film is an official Irish/Australian co-production currently shooting in Dublin, with production investment from Screen Australia and the Irish Film Board (IFB) in association with the Adelaide Film Festival and the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC).
According to Screen Australia, “Grainger and Shawkat star as Laura and Tyler respectively, best friends and drinking buddies whose hedonistic existence falls under the creeping horror of adulthood when Laura gets engaged to Jim – an ambitious pianist who decides, unfathomably, to go teetotal.”
“Drinking buddies” might be putting it light,y; a review published in The Guardian describes the pair as “deviants, enablers and co-dependants” whose escapades could involve anything from “a night of ever more blurry nightclubs [to] a kicking by a drug-dealer”.
“Emma’s novel (and screenplay) is a celebration of a female friendship and an examination of being a modern woman, a woman with faults and longings, aspirations and competing desires,” said Hyde. “I couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with both Holliday and Alia to bring two characters to the screen who are funny, disturbing, charming and nuanced, and I am delighted to bring this Animals world to life with an exceptional team from both Ireland and Australia.”
Post production will take place at Kojo in Adelaide, while Bonsai Films will distribute in Australia and New Zealand, with Cornerstone Films handling international sales.
