Academy Award-nominee Saoirse Ronan is set to star in director Nora Fingscheidt’s highly anticipated adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s best-selling memoir The Outrun. Protagonist Pictures is handling worldwide sales and will introduce the hot project to buyers at the upcoming European Film Market. The company will co-rep North American sales with CAA Media Finance.
The Outrun was optioned and has been developed by Sarah Brocklehurst’s Brock Media, which will produce the feature alongside Ronan, Jack Lowden and Dominic Norris under their recently founded banner, Arcade Pictures, and with Mogambo’s Ignacio Salazar-Simpson and Ricardo Marco. They are joined by co-producers Jonas Weydemann and Jakob D. Weydemann of Weydemann Bros. BBC Film and Screen Scotland supported the development of the project. Protagonist Pictures is Executive Producing and arranging the financing. Fingscheidt has written the adaptation in collaboration with Liptrot.
Ronan stars as Rona, who fresh out of rehab, returns to the wild Orkney Islands after more than a decade away. As she reconnects with the dramatic landscape where she grew up, memories of her childhood merge with the more recent challenging events that have set her on the path to recovery.
Liptrot’s memoir of the same name won the 2016 Wainwright Prize and the 2017 PEN Ackerley Prize and was a Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller. The book was translated into 15 languages, selling over 110,000 copies in the UK alone and was added by publisher Canongate to its modern classics list, The Canons. Rebecca Watson of VHA negotiated the film deal for the book on behalf of James Macdonald Lockhart of Antony Harwood Ltd.
“It was Amy’s voice that first drew me to The Outrun,” said Ronan. “Her unusual way of seeing things in a way that perhaps you only can when you’ve been to the darkest place you can go within yourself. I have been waiting to play a part like this – the messiness, hopefulness, dreaminess, authenticity and humor we want to achieve – I’ve been scared of it, but with Nora I feel ready.”
Amy´s intriguing and poetic story shows how one can find their lives broken into pieces, and that recovery can happen in the most unexpected of ways and places”, added Fingscheidt. “There are wonderful gifts already in place to make this a powerful and immersive film. One is the setting, the vast and cinematic landscapes of the Orkney islands; the other is our main actress, Saoirse Ronan, who brings magic to the screen with her unique mix of charisma and emotional depth!"
“Nora, with her mesmerizing filmmaking style, and Saoirse, with her endless skill and bravery are the perfect team to bring Amy’s award-winning memoir to screen,” commented Janina Vilsmaier, Head of Sales at Protagonist Pictures. “The Outrun will be an incredibly cinematic and powerful film, which will offer us a glimpse into the life of this amazing young woman, transporting us on an emotional and ultimately life affirming journey.”
Fingscheidt’s debut feature System Crasher premiered at the 2019 Berlinale where it won the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize. The film later won eight German Film Awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay among many other international awards. It was selected as the German entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards. Her latest feature, The Unforgivable, starring Sandra Bullock, topped Nielsen’s movie streaming chart in its first full week of play on Netflix upon its release in December 2021. Fingscheidt is represented by Casarotto Ramsay and Associates, Ilene Feldman Management and Agentur Homebase.
Ronan has been nominated for four Academy Awards for her roles in Little Women, Ladybird, Brooklyn and Atonement. Other credits include Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch and The Grand Budapest Hotel, Josie Rourke’s Mary Queen of Scots and Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones. She can next be seen in Searchlight Picture’s murder-mystery See How They Run opposite Sam Rockwell. Ronan is represented by CAA and MacFarlane Chard.
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About Brock Media
Brock Media is a UK-based production company headed by BAFTA-nominated and BIFA-winning producer Sarah Brocklehurst (Animals, Black Pond).
With investment from BBC Studios, the company builds on 10 years of work through Sarah Brocklehurst Productions to develop and produce television and films for a global audience. Brock Media is led by a dynamic and talented team of women who have a wide range of experience developing and producing television drama and comedy, feature films, stage and audio projects. The company’s slate is defined by commercial ambition, creative excellence and genuine diversity. Brock Media stories are driven by bold voices, honesty and fearlessness, humour and heart. The company has strong literary roots and is a trusted home for celebrated authors and journalists adapting their work for the screen.
About Arcade Pictures
Arcade Pictures is a Scotland & Ireland based production company founded by actors Saoirse Ronan & Jack Lowden and producer Dominic Norris. The company is dedicated to championing strong talent and stories, while providing a platform for a new generation of filmmakers to explore their craft. They operate in the international film & television space, with a focus on the development and production of high-end, wholly inclusive feature films and television series.
Arcade Picture’s first production to hit screens was KINDRED directed by Joe Marcantonio, starring Tamara Lawrence, Jack Lowden & Fiona Shaw. The independent film was launched by Beta Cinema & UTA at the 2020 Cannes Film Market and was picked up by a host of international distributors including IFC for the US, Sky Cinema for the UK as one of their first Sky Originals. The film received rave reviews and was nominated for both BIFA & BAFTA awards.
About BBC Film
BBC Film supports invigorating and imaginative filmmaking. Firmly established at the forefront of UK film, BBC Film has an ambitious slate featuring many of the most exciting filmmakers working today. Every film is linked by a sense of urgency – these are stories for now.
Recent films supported by BBC Film include Jane Campion’s multi-award-winning THE POWER OF THE DOG starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Jessie Plemons and Kirsten Dunst; the six-time BIFA-winning AFTER LOVE, Aleem Khan’s debut film from starring Joanna Scanlan; Andrea Arnold’s documentary COW; Joanna Hogg’s THE SOUVENIR PART II starring Honor Swinton Byrne; Clio Barnard’s ALI & AVA starring Adeel Akhtar and Claire Rushbrook; Terence Davies’ BENEDICTION starring Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi; SWEETHEART, the debut feature of Marley Morrison; Craig Roberts’ THE PHANTOM OF THE OPEN, starring Mark Rylance and Sally Hawkins; Harry Wootliff’s second film TRUE THINGS starring Ruth Wilson and Tom Burke; PIRATES, the directorial debut of Reggie Yates; and EAR FOR EYE, the second feature from debbie tucker green featuring an ensemble cast including Lashana Lynch, Tosin Cole, Carmen Munroe, Danny Sapani, Nadine Marshall and Arinzé Kene.
Upcoming BBC Film titles include debut features MEDUSA DELUXE from Thomas Hardiman, PRETTY RED DRESS from Dionne Edwards, TUESDAY from Daina O’Pusic starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lola Petticrew and Arinzé Kene, SWEET SUE from Leo Leigh, and HERE BEFORE, the debut of acclaimed playwright Stacey Gregg starring Andrea Riseborough. Other upcoming titles include GOD’S CREATURES starring Emily Watson and Paul Mescal and directed by Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer; TRIANGLE OF SADNESS, the English language debut of Ruben Östlund starring Woody Harrelson, Harris Dickinson and Charlbi Dean; and THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER from Joanna Hogg
About Screen Scotland
Screen Scotland is driving the cultural, social and economic development of all aspects of Scotland’s film and tv industry through enhanced funding, services and support with backing from Scottish Government and The National Lottery. Screen Scotland sits within Creative Scotland and works in partnership with Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Skills Development Scotland, Scottish Funding Council to ensure the sector’s continued growth. screen.scot / Twitter / Instagram.
About Mogambo
Mogambo is a Spain-based finance and production company founded in 2014. With more than 40 films in their filmography, Mogambo champions individual voices that show a new and exciting vision towards filmmaking.
Mogambo's participation credits include "1917" directed by Sam Mendes ("American Beaty", "Skyfall") which garnered three Academy Awards, the company has also participated in Pedro Almodovar's "Pain and Glory", and Spanish box office hit "Father There is Only One”.
About Protagonist Pictures
Protagonist Pictures is an international sales, finance, and production company with a proven track record in outstanding films and commercial successes. Based in the UK, the company handles films from around the world, always maintaining a strong focus on filmmakers with exceptional vision and storytelling skills.
Current sales titles include Phyllis Nagy's Call Jane, starring Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver, which premiered in Sundance and Berlin in 2022, Rebecca Miller’s She Came to me, starring Anne Hathaway, Tahar Rahim, Marisa Tomei, Joanna Kulig and Matthew Broderick, the underwater thriller The Dive by Maximilian Erlenwein, and The Damned, with Odessa Young, directed by Thordur Palsson.
Other titles include Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas starrer Official Competition, by directing duo Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat, which premiered in Venice in 2021, the 2021 Nordic supernatural thriller The Innocents which premiered in Cannes at Un Certain Regard, Censor, the opening night film of the Midnight section at Sundance 2021, directed by Prano Bailey-Bond and starring Niamh Algar – both Screen International 2018 Stars of Tomorrow alumni, Ben Wheatley’s In The Earth, starring Joel Fry, Ellora Torchia, Hayley Squires, and Reece Shearsmith – also a Sundance 2021 title, Limbo, directed by Ben Sharrock and starring Amir El-Masry, Saint Maud, from Screen’s 2018 Stars of Tomorrow writer/director Rose Glass and starring Morfydd Clark and Jennifer Ehle, Sound of Metal, directed by Darius Marder, starring Riz Ahmed and Olivia Cooke.