M.R. Carey will adapt his 2014 novel The Girl with All the Gifts for film, The Hollywood Reporter announced today. Retitled as She Who Brings Gifts, the movie will star Glenn Close, Gemma Arterton, and Paddy Considine, and will be directed by Colm McCarthy (Sherlock, Doctor Who).
These stars will likely play the three central adult roles in the film: We’re assuming Arterton is idealistic young teacher Miss Justineau, who must teach special children in the wake of a worldwide fungal infection; Considine will bring the muscle as Sergeant Ed Parks, terrified and disgusted by his charges; and Close must be Doctor Caroline Caldwell, who will sacrifice as many test subjects as she needs to in order to find a cure.
But what about Melanie, the girl who will bring gifts? The casting directors will probably be looking for an unknown to play the precocious Melanie, who knows that something is wrong with her but also yearns for love and acceptance. In a press release, producer Angus Lamont talked a little bit about the film’s emotional core:
Melanie’s story is a completely unique take on a much loved genre, seamlessly blending together a lonely child’s search for love and family with a terrifying journey where she controls the fate of the last adult humans on earth.
Filming will begin in the UK in May 2015; no release date has been announced yet.
Am I crazy, or wasn’t Justineau a POC?
You’re not crazy. She was a woman of color in the book. This casting makes me unutterably sad.
That was my exact thought on seeing the headline. Really disappointing, there are any number of minority actresses who could do the part justice, some of them more famous than Gemma Arterton.
Yep, I had the same thought. Nothing against Gemma Arterton, but it’s pretty obvious in the book that Ms. Justineau is a person of color and I’d really like to see that translated to the screen. Oh Hollywood…. please change.
very disappointed about who they cast as Miss Justineau… I was looking forward to seeing a strong woman of color play the part. too bad they already ruined it for me…
So disappointing by casting choice. Apparently director had not read book and had no idea she was black . Check out this conversation on twitter my friend had with director and writer, very defensive. https://twitter.com/nicolestofjoys/status/581796493377581057/photo/1
Ms. Justineau is so obviously black. It is discussed multiple times throughout the book. Ridiculous.
Whitewashing bullshit. Loved the book, but fuck this movie.
Lupita Nyongo would have been perfect for Miss Justineau. Really unfortunate whitewashing that makes me not want to see the movie.
So..this isn’t the typical lets turn the character of a book into a different race or gender crap for PC reasons….
We already have a main character who is a different race to another main character…so why mess it up with stupid stuff like this? I mean the girl here has short hair to name one of the many stupid things.
I imagine myself and plenty of others already lose any hope we had for the film when they showed that they tried to be different in a stupid way.
I was so excited about the film until it was casted.
Why haven’t they learned to stop casting like this? I will not support the movie at all.
Love the book though!