Rebel Wilson and Janet McTeer set to star in film adaptation of THE ALMOND AND THE SEAHORSE

Rebel Wilson is branching out into the dramatic space with The Almond And The Sea Horse, a feature adaptation of Kaite O’Reilly’s stageplay in which she will star with Janet McTeer and further cast is set to be announced soon. The film is a poignant story about two couples where one partner has survived a traumatic brain injury, exploring how it impacts their lives together.

Tom Stern, an Oscar nominated cinematographer for Changeling, will make his directorial debut on the pic, co-helming with Celyn Jones, who is also making his feature debut in the director’s chair having penned screenplays for The Vanishing and Six Minutes To Midnight. Jones is also joining the cast of the film, reprising a role he played in the original stage production.

Producers are Andy Evans and Sean Marley with Alex Ashworth from Wales and Liverpool-based Mad As Birds (Poms, Six Minutes to Midnight) and co-producers are Christophe Mazodier from Polaris and Jean-Jacques Neira from Fontana. Shooting is scheduled to commence in March 2021 in Liverpool and North Wales.

Bankside Films is handling international sales rights on the project.

“The Almond And The Seahorse will be a journey into the lives of two couples whose lives become irreversibly altered through simple twists of fate,” said director Stern. “We will join them in their search for new relevance in this new reality, a search that is both tragic and comedic as their worlds turn upside down. The film will be directed jointly; bridging image, drama and performance into a poignant tale of humans striving for meaning and love.”

“Making The Almond And The Seahorse will be an honour,” added the Mad As Birds team. “It’s a real credit to Kaite O’Reilly’s brilliant source material that the screenplay turned out so well and attracted a stunning, world class cast. We can’t wait to tell this remarkable story together, a moving and humorous story that needs to be told.”

“We are thrilled to be working with such a prestigious cast and crew on this uniquely life affirming story which explores the eternal question of what memories mean to us and those we love,” said Bankside’s Stephen Kelliher. “We have no doubt that they will create a truly compelling film which will entertain and enrich audiences around the world.”

PRACTICAL SIDE HUSTLE GUIDE FROM ELIZABETH OGABI SNAPPED UP BY HARPERCOLLINS

HarperCollins Publishers has pre-empted UK & Commonwealth rights for SIDE HUSTLE IN PROGRESS: A Practical Guide to Kickstarting Your Business from For Working Ladies founder, Elizabeth Ogabi. Assistant Editor Omara Elling-Hwang struck the deal for Harper NonFiction with Juliet Pickering. SIDE HUSTLE IN PROGRESS will publish in summer 2021.

It’s currently estimated that 40% of UK workers have a side hustle and with this number set to grow each year, Elizabeth Ogabi has delivered a practical and easily accessible guide for anybody who has a business idea but doesn’t know where to begin. Research shows that it is currently more popular amongst men than women (30% men versus 21% women) despite more women desiring to start their own, and Elizabeth is on a mission to support women bringing their ideas to life.

SIDE HUSTLE IN PROGRESS aims to break down the seemingly overwhelming process. Packed full of definitive advice, inspiration and case studies, readers will learn how to start their own side hustle, whilst also finding fresh ideas to help them feel empowered and excited about their future.

Having co-founded businesses and worked as a digital and communications consultant for the last 12 years, Elizabeth is perfectly placed to share her experience and expertise on everything from defining your vision to business models, PR & marketing and much more. She is also the founder of digital media platform, For Working Ladies, focused on equipping women with the information and tools they need to have a successful career, whether that’s starting a side hustle, breaking through the corporate glass ceiling or pursuing full time entrepreneurship — the ultimate goal is to help women live the life they desire. This is all done via workshops, panel discussions, podcasts, coaching and digital resources.

Having co-founded businesses and worked as a digital and communications consultant for the last 12 years, Elizabeth is perfectly placed to share her experience and expertise on everything from defining your vision to business models, PR & marketing and much more. She is also the founder of digital media platform, For Working Ladies, focused on equipping women with the information and tools they need to have a successful career, whether that’s starting a side hustle, breaking through the corporate glass ceiling or pursuing full time entrepreneurship — the ultimate goal is to help women live the life they desire. This is all done via workshops, panel discussions, podcasts, coaching and digital resources.

Elizabeth Ogabi says: I am extremely excited to have my first book published with HarperCollins and couldn’t think of a better publisher to partner with. This is a guide I wish I had when I started out with businesses ideas and I’m truly looking forward to seeing more women bring their ideas to life with the support and advice Side Hustle in Progress provides from myself and other female entrepreneurs.

Juliet Pickering says: ‘Elizabeth’s mentorship and support for other women starting out in business are a real inspiration, and I’m delighted that she’s to publish SIDE HUSTLE IN PROGRESS with HarperCollins, so many more can read and be guided by her recommendations and experience. It will be the perfect book for anyone who’s ever dreamed of pursuing their own business but doesn’t know where to start.’

Omara Elling-Hwang says: ‘Elizabeth’s personal enthusiasm for inspiring and empowering entrepreneurial women shines through and I am so excited to be working with her on this book. The pandemic has meant that people have started re-evaluating their lives and their work but starting a business is often very overwhelming! Elizabeth is a knowledgeable, passionate guide and SIDE HUSTLE IN PROGRESS is a really practical handbook to help motivate people to make it happen.’

About Elizabeth Ogabi:

Elizabeth is a digital brand and communications consultant who has worked across various industries and two continents over the last 12 years. She is also a business coach, speaker and enjoys delivering workshops that will advance women forward in their personal and professional lives.

She actively focuses on supporting women in business which has led her to found the platform, For Working Ladies, a feminist digital media company, providing resources, digital content and coaching for entrepreneurial thinking women. She has been recognised for her work by Forbes, The Dots and other notable publications.

She is the host of How I Made It Happen, a podcast focused on giving you the advice from women in business. 

In 2019, she was named by The Dots UK as one of 100 women redefining the creative industry on International Women’s Day and named UK Ambassador of Women's Entrepreneurship Day established by the UN.

She is British-Nigerian and currently resides in London with her husband. 

Debut novel INTERVIEWS WITH AN APE by Felice Fallon to Selina Walker of Cornerstone

Photo: Richard Loncraine

Selina Walker of Cornerstone has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) in a remarkable debut novel, Interviews with an Ape by Felice Fallon, about a gorilla called Einstein who comes to us with an extraordinary secret: he can communicate with humans through sign language. Rights were acquired from Isobel Dixon at Blake Friedmann.

Walker describes Interviews with an Ape as a ‘truly original novel, a series of interlinked stories told by a group of animals and the people who care for or exploit them. It’s a story about all of us – animals and humans – a tale of triumph and defeat, of hope over despair, and our infinite capacities to endure, to love, and to survive through the stories we tell. A work of imaginative daring, it’s written with a direct simplicity as well as a deep insight into the animal kingdom and the natural world around us.’

Felice Fallon says: ‘My primary objective is to tell a good story, and one that will lend a new perspective about the world around us. I hope the characters, both animal and human, succeed in doing this by relating to the reader in their own words and voices their unique stories.’

Isobel Dixon says: ‘Felice Fallon writes with such empathy, humour and love – her absorbing debut, Interviews with an Ape, is a transformative reading experience and I’m so thrilled that through Selina Walker’s publishing vision it will be shared with a wide audience.’

Interviews with an Ape will be published in hardback by Century in July 2021, and comes with an advance quote from Michael Palin who calls it ‘an unusually powerful novel, and a timely one too.’

About Felice Fallon

Felice Fallon was born in Los Angeles, California and worked in advertising in New York before moving to London to marry and raise a family. In her mid-fifties she read history, politics and philosophy at Birkbeck. She has written screenplays, but Interviews with an Ape is her first novel.

Louisa Minghella on the Jury for Filmarket Hub's first feature screenwriting competition

We’re thrilled to announce that media agent Louisa Minghella will be sitting on the jury for the 2020 Filmarket Hub Feature Film competition. She joins BBC Studios’ Dione Farrell and development consultant Karol Griffiths to determine who wins the €2000 prize! There are cash prizes and industry goodies for the winner and 3 runner-ups.

The competition closes in December with announcements in March, and you can submit your scripts here.

SHADOWPLAY SELECTED FOR RICHARD AND JUDY’S WINTER BOOK CLUB 2020

Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan yesterday launched their Christmas Book Club selections, exclusive to WH Smith. We are thrilled to announce that Joseph O’Connor’s magnificent novel SHADOWPLAY is one of Richard and Judy’s picks for Winter. Judy describes SHADOWPLAY as ‘a terrific book… dramatic, sad, but also richly funny… A truly great book you simply cannot put down’, whilst Richard says, ‘SHADOWPLAY is complex, rich, sad, funny, and a beautiful read. You’ll LOVE it.’ 

SHADOWPLAY was published in paperback this week by Vintage Books. WH Smith customers can enjoy exclusive special editions of the Book Club titles filled with added bonus content, including book club discussion points, author Q&As and more recommended reads.

London, 1878. Three extraordinary people begin their life together – and the idea for Dracula is born.

Fresh from life in Dublin, Bram Stoker – now manager of the Lyceum Theatre – is wrestling with dark demons in a new city, in a new marriage, and with his own literary aspirations. As he walks the streets at night, streets haunted by the Ripper and the gossip which swirls around his friend Oscar Wilde, he finds new inspiration. Soon, the eerie tale of Dracula begins to emerge.

But Henry Irving, volcanic leading man and impresario, is determined that nothing will get in the way of Bram’s dedication to the Lyceum. And both men are growing ever more enchanted by the beauty and boldness of Ellen Terry, the most celebrated actress of her generation.

Published in 2019, SHADOWPLAY, has garnered extraordinary praise, was a Sunday Times novel of the year and was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize, the Dalkey and Costa Novel Prizes. SHADOWPLAY won Novel of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards. The superb audio edition, read by Barry McGovern and Anna Chancellor, is released by W.F. Howes in the UK and Dreamscape in the US. Europa published in the US, film rights are optioned and translation rights have been sold in eight translation markets so far: China (Shanghai Elegant People), Croatia (Fraktura), France (Editions Rivages), Hungary (Helikon), Italy (Guanda), Serbia (Carobna Knjiga), Sweden (Natur Och Kultur) and Turkey (Sia Kitap).The French edition was shortlisted for the Jean Monnet Prize.

About Joseph O’Connor
Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin. He is the author of nine novels, two collections of short stories, and several bestselling works of non-fiction. He has also written film scripts and radio and stage-plays. His novel STAR OF THE SEA was an international bestseller, selling more than a million copies and being published in 38 languages. It won France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Acerbi, the Irish Post Award for Fiction, the Nielsen Bookscan Golden Book Award, an American Library Association Award, the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Hall of Fame Award, and the Prix Litteraire Zepter for European Novel of the Year.

He holds an honorary Doctorate in Literature from University College Dublin and received the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature in 2012. He is the Inaugural Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick.

See Joseph O’Connor’s website here.

Praise for Joseph O’Connor and SHADOWPLAY

‘Ireland’s greatest storyteller.’ — The Sunday Independent

‘SHADOWPLAY totally swept me away . . . It’s a bit like Moulin Rouge meets Dracula. I absolutely loved it.”—Oliver Callan, Irish Examiner

‘Joseph O’Connor is a very great artist and storyteller. The quotient of enjoyment in his extraordinary new novel is stupendous.’ — Sebastian Barry

‘A vibrantly imaginative narrative of passion, intrigue and literary ambition.’ — Miranda Seymour, New York Times

‘Dazzling … The panache and subtlety of his prose perfectly match the gusto and creative finesse of the world his novel wonderfully evokes.’ – Peter Kemp, Sunday Times, Paperback of the Week

‘A colourful tale of secret love and public performance…in a romantic, lost London’ —The Times

‘A virtuoso act of literary ventriloquism. SHADOWPLAY is funny, smart, tender, wise and written with inch-perfect precision.’ – Colum McCann

‘A novel I’d recommend to anyone: a rollicking and moving story’ — James Naughtie, Radio Times

‘Ingenious…hugely impressive and utterly haunting’ — Sunday Mirror

‘An ambitious celebration of friendship, theatre and the power of darkness, SHADOWPLAY is chilling and dramatic in equal measure.’ — Jane Shilling, Daily Mail, Must Reads

‘A great writer performing Olympian literary storytelling.’ — Sir Bob Geldof

‘Subtly drawn and intensely affecting, this portrayal of accidental friendship, enduring love, frustrated ambition and the alchemy of acting …   O’Connor’s main characters—Stoker, Irving and the beloved actress Ellen Terry—are so forcefully brought to life that when, close to tears, you reach this drama’s final page, you will return to the beginning just to remain in their company.’ — Anna Mundow, Wall Street Journal