We’re delighted to share some news on the upcoming film adaptation of THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS by M. R . Carey. The film is to star Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine and Glenn Close, and is to be directed by Colm McCarthy – best known for his work on Sherlock, Peaky Blinders and Doctor Who.

Here is a press release which has gone out today from Altitude Film Entertainment:

 

ALTITUDE BOARDS ‘SHE WHO BRINGS GIFTS’ TO BE DIRECTED BY COLM MCCARTHY AND STARRING GEMMA ARTERTON, PADDY CONSIDINE AND GLENN CLOSE

Feature from bestselling Mike Carey novel marks highly anticipated feature debut by director Colm McCarthy

LONDON – Monday 23 March 2015. Altitude Film Sales has boarded SHE WHO BRINGS GIFTS, one of last year’s Brit List selected screenplays, adapted by acclaimed novelist M. R. Carey from his bestselling novel The Girl with all the Gifts.

Director Colm McCarthy lauded helmer of hit British TV shows including Peaky Blinders starring Cillian Murphy and Tom Hardy, Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, Doctor Who, Endeavour and The Tudors, will direct his first major feature. The cast includes Gemma Arterton (Tamara Drewe, The Disappearance of Alice Creed) who is currently starring in Marjane Satrapi’s The Voices following her West End musical stage debut in Made in Dagenham; Paddy Considine from BAFTA-winning British hit Pride, a BAFTA award-winning director for Tyrannosaur and soon to be seen in Macbeth with Michael Fassbender; and the multi-award-winning and six-time Oscar® nominated actress Glenn Close, soon to be seen in Tim Blake Nelson’s Anesthesia, Bjorn Runge’s The Wife, last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy and a just-completed starring run on Broadway in A Delicate Balance.

Mike Carey first came to prominence within the world of comic books, writing the Lucifer series at DC Vertigo, Hellblazer for DC, X-Men, Fantastic Four and adapting Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Shadow for Marvel amongst other titles. He also wrote The Unwritten which has made the New York Times graphic novel bestseller list and was awarded Comic Con’s Inkpot Award in 2012. More recently, Carey has moved into prose fiction with thrillers such as The Dead Sea Deception (under the pseudonym of Adam Blake), fantasy novels The City of Silk and Steel and The House of War and Witness and the Felix Castor novels. The Girl with all the Gifts is his most recent novel, published in 2014 to critical acclaim and attracting multitudes of fans including writer-director Joss Whedon who proclaimed it to be: “Heartfelt, remorseless and painfully human . . . as fresh as it is terrifying. A jewel.”

SHE WHO BRINGS GIFTS is due to shoot in the UK in May 2015 and is produced by Camille Gatin, co-producer of James Marsh’s Shadow Dancer and Ricky Gervais’s Special Correspondents co-starring Eric Bana, and Angus Lamont, producer of the Berlin Competition Jury award-winning ’71 directed by Yann Demange. The feature has been developed with the support of the BFI Film Fund.

SHE WHO BRINGS GIFTS is the story of Melanie, a girl who is full of questions about the world. Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into a wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite. But they don’t laugh.

Melanie is a very special girl.

Camille Gatin says, “It’s hugely exciting to combine Mike Carey’s truly original script and Colm McCarthy’s dynamic yet sensitive style, with such a terrific cast.”

Angus Lamont adds, “Melanie’s story is a completely unique take on a much loved genre, seamlessly blending together a lonely child’s search for love and family with a terrifying journey where she controls the fate of the last adult humans on earth.”

Will Clarke, Co-CEO and Chairman of Altitude Film Entertainment says, “SHE WHO BRINGS GIFTS is a smart take on the sci-fi genre and with a humanity which will draw a young adult audience and those already aware of Mike Carey’s bestselling novel. With the great cast that has come on board we have a highly commercial film which can cut through to a broad audience.”

The Brit List is a compendium of stellar scripts by non-US writers, set up to complement the US Black List with previous scripts which have made the List in previous years including The King’s Speech, My Week with Marilyn and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

Altitude Film Sales has recently announced new projects it is representing internationally including Anthropoid, to be directed by Oscar® and BAFTA-nominated British filmmaker Sean Ellis (Metro Manila, Cashback), co-written by Ellis with Anthony Frewin (Colour Me Kubrick: A True . . . ish Story) and starring Jamie Dornan (Fifty Shades of Grey, The Fall) and Cillian Murphy (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises); and Palio, a new documentary from award-winning filmmaker Cosima Spender (Without Gorky, Dolce Vita Africana) and co-produced by James Gay-Rees (Amy, Senna) and John Hunt.

About Mike Carey’s novel, The Girl with all the Gifts

Screenwriter and director Joss Whedon, creator of TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and writer-director of The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron says of Carey’s novel, “The story of Melanie and the people around her is so thoughtfully crafted, so heartfelt, remorseless and painfully human . . . It left me sighing with envious joy, like I’d been simultaneously offered flowers and beaten at chess. A jewel.”

The Girl with all the Gifts was first published in 2014 by Orbit.

About Altitude Film Entertainment

The Altitude Film Entertainment group comprises Altitude Film Production led by Will Clarke chairman and joint-CEO with Andy Mayson; Altitude Film Sales with Managing Director Mike Runagall; and Altitude Film Distribution with Head of Distribution Hamish Moseley.

Altitude is involved in film production, financing, international sales and distribution. The company’s first creative partnerships are with filmmakers Jalmari Helander, Petri Jokiranta, and Alex Garland for Big Game starring Samuel L. Jackson, Onni Tommila, Jim Broadbent, Ray Stevenson and Mehmet Kurtulus and which premiered at TIFF in their cult MIDNIGHT MADNESS section; producer Gregor Cameron and director Owen Harris for Kill Your Friends, based on the cult satirical novel by John Niven and starring Nicholas Hoult, James Corden and Georgia King; James Watkins (The Woman in Black, Eden Lake) and Simon Duric for The Loch and to star Peter Mullan; and director Jabbar Raisani for Outpost 37.

The Altitude sales slate also includes Anthropoid to be directed by Sean Ellis and starring Jamie Dornan and Cillian Murphy; Palio, directed by award-winning filmmaker Cosima Spender and produced by James Gay-Rees and John Hunt, premiering at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival; Kill Your Friends, based on the cult satirical novel by John Niven, directed by Owen Harris and starring Nicholas Hoult, James Corden and Georgia King; 2014 TIFF Midnight Madness selection Big Game, directed by Jalmari Helander and starring Samuel L. Jackson and Onni Tommila; SAS: Red Notice based on the Andy McNab bestselling novel, to be directed by Nick Love and starring Luke Evans; Bolshoi Babylon from the Oscar®-winning producer Simon Chinn, Mark Franchetti and director Nick Read; Catch Me Daddy (2014 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight) from filmmaker brothers Daniel and Matthew Wolfe and released in the UK last month; Get Santa, a family comedy directed by Christopher Smith and starring Jim Broadbent; Son of a Gun directed by Julius Avery and starring Ewan McGregor, Brenton Thwaites and Alicia Vikander; The Loch, co-written by James Watkins and Simon Duric with Duric to direct and starring Peter Mullan; Outpost 37 directed by Jabbar Raisani and starring Rick Ravenello, Matthew Holmes and Reiley McClendon; Fishing Without Nets, directed by Cutter Hodierne and winner of the Sundance US Dramatic Directing award; The Rendlesham UFO Incident directed by Daniel Simpson and starring Robert Curtis, Abbie Salt and Danny Shayler; Pulp – A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets, a celebration of alternative rock band Pulp directed by Florian Habicht; The Call-Up directed by Charles Barker and starring Max Deacon and Morfydd Clark; and 47 Meters Down directed by Johannes Roberts.