Netflix is teaming up with Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions for The Earthquake Bird, based on Susanna Jones’ novel of the same name. Academy Award winner Alicia Vikander and Golden Globe nominee Riley Keough are just finishing up negotiations to star in Wash Westermoreland’s adaptation of the novel.
The story takes place in Tokyo, Japan in the early 2000s. It begins with a young woman named Lucy being questioned by the police about the disappearance of her friend Lily. The neo-noir thriller recounts Lucy’s time in Japan as an English translator and navigates around the premise of a love triangle that may have formed with a handsome local photographer when Lily arrives to visit Lucy. Throughout the novel, the readers are told how Lucy arrived to her current predicament with the police at the beginning leading up to the tumultuous trip to Sado Island where the trio begins to fall apart.
Amazon originally had plans to initiate the project according to Deadline, however Netflix has taken over and plans to start production this May in Tokyo and Sado Island. Ridley Scott will executive produce with Scott Free’s Kevin Walsh and Michael Pruss producing alongside Ann Ruark (Mr. Holmes, forthcoming Boy Erased) and Twenty First City’s Georgina Pope.
Alicia Vikander currently can be seen in theaters now in Tomb Raider. She recently just signed on to star in The Imitation Game director Morten Tyldum’s adaptation of The Marsh King’s Daughter. Vikander also won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the 2015 film The Danish Girl.
Riley Keough is most known for her role as one of the escaped wives of Immortan Joe in Mad Max: Fury Road but has since made headlines starring in last year’s It Comes at Night and Logan Lucky. She received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie for her performance in The Girlfriend Experience. She can be seen in the forthcoming Under the Silver Lake, which just debuted its maddening trailer yesterday and Lars Von Trier’s horror film The House That Jack Built.
Wash Westmoreland is most known for writing and directing Julianne Moore’s Oscar winning Still Alice. He also just debuted the Keira Knightley helmed Collette at Sundance this year. Westmoreland seems an appropriate pick to direct the film, having spent a year studying in Japan during the same time the novel takes place.
The film has no set distribution date, but this is definitely one we will keep a tab on. Check back as more details are unveiled.