The Pianist was a long, grueling film that scored Adrian Brody (and his delightful schnozz) an Oscar for Best Actor. The painful journey also landed writer Ronald Harwood the award for Best Adapted Screenplay—and he is hoping that lightning truly strikes twice. Harwood is returning to the WWII battlefield for his next adaptation, Suite Francaise.
Variety reports that Universal Pictures has landed the screen rights to Irene Nemirovsky’s book, and Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall are set to produce. The story takes place in 1940, after German soldiers invaded France. Of course, since this is a war epic, there is a central ‘Romeo and Juliet’ love story between a French woman and a German soldier.
As for why Harwood decided to return to a place of misery and fatality, he said, "Obviously, I'm drawn to the period, and what this story reveals about the nature of humans when they are under threat."
The interesting thing about Suite Francaise is that Nemirovsky wrote it shortly before she died in Auschwitz. It was discovered by family members sixty years later, and they originally thought it was a diary. Oops.
