Getty Images
[Update 07.10.17, 7:30 pm: Universal has won a bidding war for Swan Lake. Erik Baiers will oversee the project for the studio. WME negotiated the deal. THR broke the news.]
A bidding war has broken out over a new film adaptation of SWAN LAKE that has Felicity Jones attached to star, Luca Guadagnino attached to direct and Mandeville Films set to produce, the Tracking Board has confirmed.
WME is shopping the hot package and multiple studios have made offers on the project, which is based on a pitch from Kristina Lauren Anderson (Catherine the Great) that was inspired by Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet.
Universal, Paramount and TriStar are reportedly in the mix, but it seems as though Disney, Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox are sitting this one out.
Swan Lake follows a princess named Odette who is turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer’s curse. The new film from Guadagnino is being pitched as a tentpole inspired by the ballet, which also served as the inspiration for Darren Aronofsky’s acclaimed thriller Black Swan, though that was hardly a faithful adaptation.
Between her starring role in Rogue One, a recent Oscar nomination for her turn in The Theory of Everything and a devastating performance in A Monster Calls, Jones is red-hot right now, and so is Guadagnino, whose Sundance drama Call Me By Your Name is expected to be an awards contender this fall. The Italian filmmaker also has a remake of Suspiria in the can, and is developing the Jake Gyllenhaal-Benedict Cumberbatch film Rio. They’re both represented by WME, which also reps Anderson along with MGMT Entertainment.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of the Swan Lake package, but stay tuned to the Tracking Board to find out which studio walks away with the project.
Jeff Sneider | Editor in Chief
