After his production company SunnyMarch got the right to Megan Hunter’s novel earlier this year, Benedict Cumberbatch has officially joined the cast of The End We Start From. The thriller stars Jodie Comer as a woman who gives birth as London is flooded, forcing her family to seek a series of refuges from the apocalyptic natural disaster. The film promises to be “a powerful hopeful story about the trials and joys of new motherhood in the midst of devastating floods that swallow up the city of London.”
Cumberbatch isn’t alone. Mark Strong is also joining the cast alongside Katherine Waterston, who was announced earlier this summer.
Directed by Mahalia Belo making her feature film debut and written by BAFTA-nominated Alice Birch (Lady Macbeth, Succession), the film has already launched production in London. Belo’s short film Volume, a twisty drama about a missing girl, won a British Independent Film Award and screened at Sundance.
Hunter’s book is stark and sparse, focusing on the challenges of raising the child as the world collapses in the background. It will be interesting to see how the film pulls that focus and delivers us a post-partum climate crisis. At any rate, getting Cumberbatch and Strong in the cast can’t hurt.
(via Deadline)
