WASHINGTON: Millie Bobby Brown has enlisted Academy Award-winning director Tom Hooper to helm the film adaptation of her New York Times bestselling novel Nineteen Steps for Netflix, according to Deadline.
As previously announced, Anthony McCarten, a four-time Oscar nominee known for Bohemian Rhapsody and The Theory of Everything, is adapting the screenplay. The project is currently in development.
Brown will produce alongside Jake Bongiovi and Bobby Brown for PCMA, with Jonathan Eirich producing for Rideback. Brown is also expected to star in the film, while Nick Reynolds will serve as executive producer for Rideback.
Nineteen Steps, co-written by Brown and Kathleen McGurl, is a Second World War novel inspired by the experiences of Brown’s grandmother. It follows 18-year-old Nellie Morris, who lives in Bethnal Green in East London and faces the hardships of wartime life, including air raids, rationing and separation from loved ones, while beginning a romance with an American airman named Ray.
At the heart of the story is the Bethnal Green Tube disaster, one of the deadliest civilian incidents in Britain during the war, in which 173 people died in a crush while seeking shelter during an air raid.
Hooper won the Academy Award for Best Director for The King's Speech and is also known for directing Les Misérables and The Danish Girl. Most recently, he has been attached to direct Photograph 51, an adaptation of Anna Ziegler’s play, set to star Natalie Portman as pioneering scientist Rosalind Franklin.
Brown’s upcoming projects also include Enola Holmes 3 and Just Picture It, both for Netflix.
(With inputs from ANI)