Glenn Close is set to star in “The Wife,” a film adaptation of Meg Wolitzer’s 2003 novel of the same name. The drama sees the six-time Oscar nominee playing Joan Castleman, a woman best known as the wife of an incredibly successful man. Joan has dedicated years of her life to nurturing her husband’s (Jonathan Pryce, “Game of Thrones”) career, but a moment of revelation causes Joan to reconsider their relationship and her future. Variety reports that the film, whose cast includes Christian Slater (“Mr. Robot”) and Annie Starke (“Albert Nobbs”), starts principal photography October 31.
According to a plot summary, Joan’s husband, a hugely influential novelist, “has no idea how to take care of himself or anyone else.” He’s about to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, and “the flawlessly gracious Joan, who has spent 40 years ignoring her own literary talents to fan the flames of his career, has finally decided to stop.” “The Wife” explores the history that led to this breaking point, and “raises intriguing questions about the nature of partnership and the precarious position of an ambitious woman in a man’s world.”
Jane Anderson (“Olive Kitteridge,” “Mad Men”) penned the script and Björn Runge (“Daybreak”) will direct. Rosalie Swedlin, Meta Louise Foldager, Piers Tempest, Piodor Gustafsson, and Claudia Bluemhuber are producing, and “London-based Embankment Films has secured multiple pre-sales throughout international territories and brokered the financing for the film, provided by Silver Reel, Creative Scotland, Film Väst, Chimney, the Swedish Film Institute, and SF Studios,” Variety writes.
“I have never played a character like Joan Castleman and am thrilled by the prospect of bringing her to life,” commented Close. “I have huge admiration for Jonathan Pryce’s sublime talent and am honored to be partnering with him in ‘The Wife.’” She continued, “The story is arresting and the characters are artists of the highest order — complex, passionate, flawed, and movingly human. I adore Jane Anderson’s writing and look forward to being guided by Björn Runge.”
Embankment’s Tim Haslam added, “‘The Wife’ celebrates a woman who takes back the power that she should rightfully possess — in a thought-provoking, witty, dignified, and graceful manner, and with a ‘twist’ ending that you really don’t see coming. ‘The Wife’ is for a cinema audience stimulated by powerful, intimate, and award-winning performance at the highest level.”
“The Wife” is also for a cinema audience that wants to see films that recognize that older women exist, and that their stories are worth telling. Research conducted by Dr. Martha Lauzen and The Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film found that in the top 100 highest-grossing films of 2015, “the percentage of male characters in their 50s (17 percent) is almost twice that of female characters in their 50s (nine percent).”
Close’s many credits include “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Damages,” “Albert Nobbs,” “The Shield,” “Fatal Attraction,” and “The World According to Garp.”
