It’s been a while since a Nick Hornby novel was adapted for cinematic release, but soon we’ll have a BBC Films adaptation of A Long Way Down to warm the cockles of our hard bitten hearts. Published in 2005, the book was another dark comedy from the man who brought us About A Boy, High Fidelity and Fever Pitch, so the movie should be another enshrouded, character rich, left-field comedy.
The scheduled release date isn’t until the 14th February 2014 (Valentine’s Day), so you’ll have a little while to wait to see the movie, however, BBC has announced a few details and early imagery to give Nick Hornby fans a taste of what to expect. French director, Pascal Chaumeil, will be taking the helm for the release following up on his 2012 comedy, Un Plan Parfait starring Diane Kruger (Inglorious Basterds).
Amanda Posey and Finola Dwyer, who were 2 of the producers for the last Nick Hornby novel adaptation, An Education, will be sharing the role for A Long Way Down.
The story starts out with depression at its heart as former minor TV celebrity Martin Sharp (Pierce Brosnan) heads out on New Years Eve to throw himself off the top of a London high rise apartment. What he doesn’t realise is that his chosen implement of death is quite a popular final destination. With single mum on a wire Maureen, played by Toni Collette (who had a similar role in About A Boy), troubled teenager Jess (Imogen Poots – The Look Of Love) and failing musician come pizza delivery boy JJ (Aaron Paul – Mission: Impossible III) all up on the rooftop with the same plan, Martin has a whole new situation on his hands.
As well as Sam Neil, former bond girl, Rosamund Pike (An Education & The World’s End), is also set to star in the film as Martin’s former colleague Penny, who he’s having an affair with. Following the breakup of his marriage and 3 month prison term he served for making the mistake of sleeping with a girl aged 15 years and 250 days, his life is in ruins, but with his new gang of suicidal strangers they decide join together to make through until Valentine’s Day.
The novel itself received mixed reviews and considering the cast and the director, the movie could go the same way too. However, it should still have the elements of dark comedy and serious questions that made the book such a hit.
Very excited about the new Hornby adaptation, so thanks for writing about it. However, you may want to remove mentions of An Education being his last adapted novel since it is not based upon one of his novels. He adapted teh screenplay from a story written by someone else.