After the great success of “Me Before You,” director Thea Sharrock has been hired for another book-to-film adaptation, Variety reports. Sharrock is attached to direct YA novel “The Selection” for Warner Bros.
The news comes shortly after “Me Before You” over-performed box office expectations, earning over $80 million (so far) on a budget of $20 million. The audience for the film’s opening weekend skewed 81 percent female, of which 53 percent were over the age of 35.
Written by Kiera Cass, 2012’s “The Selection” tells the story of America Singer, “one of 35 women chosen to compete for a prince’s affections. The protagonist is torn between the opulence of royal life, and a secret relationship she was involved in before the competition started.”
“Me Before You” was Sharrock’s feature film debut. She previously directed for British theater, winning the James Menzies-Kitchin Young Director of the Year Award in 2000. Her theatrical directorial debut, a production of Caryl Churchill’s “Top Girls,” transferred to the West End. She was Britain’s youngest artistic director at the Southwark Playhouse and became the artistic director of the Gate Theatre in Notting Hill. She’s accumulated numerous TV directing gigs, including “Call the Midwife” for BBC and the BBC miniseries “The Hollow Crown” which featured Tom Hiddleston in the chapter “Henry V.” Her first musical, “The Bodyguard,” is now on a UK tour.
In an interview with Women and Hollywood, Sharrock said of women in the industry, “If a woman is the right person for the job, she should get the job, not because she’s a woman but she’s the right person for the job. But I find it staggering that in my career, I have never felt I got a job because I’m a woman. I’ve never approached things with that in my mind, but when you look at the numbers in movies, it’s absolutely staggering.”
Denise Di Novi and Alison Greenspan of DiNovi Pictures, along with Pouya Shahbazian, are producing for Warner Bros, with Julia Spiro overseeing the project. Katie Lovejoy adapted the book to screenplay.
