Blueprint Pictures (The Banshees of Inisherin, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) announced today that Chlöe Bailey, Tosin Cole, Academy Award winner Olivia Colman, and Academy Award nominee Woody Harrelson will star in Girl from the North Country, based on the Tony Award-winning show inspired by the songs of music icon Bob Dylan. The star-studded drama is written and directed by Conor McPherson, the celebrated playwright behind the Broadway show, and produced by Blueprint Pictures’ Graham Broadbent and Pete Czernin. CAA Media Finance will represent the film’s domestic sales with Rocket Science launching international sales at the upcoming Berlin Film Festival.
In what the New York Times declared “profoundly beautiful” and the Chicago Tribune called “a Broadway revelation!,” Girl from the North Country reimagines legendary Bob Dylan songs, including: “Forever Young,” “All Along The Watchtower,” “Hurricane,” “Slow Train Coming,” “Make You Feel My Love” and “Like A Rolling Stone.”
Based in 1934 in Duluth, Minnesota during the Great Depression, a group of wayward travelers’ lives intersect in a guesthouse filled with music, life and hope. Things are spiraling out of control for proprietor Nick Laine (Harrelson). His wife Elizabeth (Colman) is suffering from dementia. The bank is foreclosing on their home. Their adopted daughter, Marianne (Bailey), has a closely guarded secret that no one can explain. But when an escaped convict Joe Scott (Cole) seeks shelter at the guesthouse, a relationship develops between Marianne and Joe that will change everything for everyone forever. A love story set in a time of adversity, Girl from the North Country speaks to our world now just as Bob Dylan’s timeless songs give voice to the eternal struggle of the human spirit for every age.
After seeing the play, Bob Dylan said the following about Conor McPherson, “To be associated with Conor is one of the highlights of my professional life. It goes without saying the man is a genius for putting this thing together and I’m thrilled to be a part of the experience. My songs couldn’t be in better hands. The play had me crying at the end. I can’t even say why. When the curtain came down, I was stunned. I really was.”