Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones’ star continues to rise with the announcement she is joining the Reese Witherspoon-produced adaption of Where the Crawdad’s Sing.
The film will be based on Delia Owens’ popular debut novel (8.5 million copies sold worldwide, thank you very much!), and is set in 1969 in North Carolina.
The story centres around a young woman named Kya who is abandoned by her family and raises herself alone near her small town. Known as “Marsh Girl” by the townspeople and largely keeping to herself, when her boyfriend is found dead, she is instantly a prime suspect and her lonely existence is no more.
In a review for the novel, Witherspoon wrote: “I can’t even express how much I love this book! I didn’t want this story to end!” before adding it to her Hello Sunshine Book Club as a must-read.
According to Hachette, the novel, which was published in 2018, is “at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps”.
Before Where the Crawdad’s Sing, Edgar-Jones, 22, will also appear in the thriller, Fresh, which has been scripted by Lauryn Kahn (writer of Ibiza).
Not much else is known about the project, which was announced at the beginning of September, because it has been kept largely under wraps.
Edgar-Jones rose to fame in the TV series adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People alongside newcomer and co-star, Paul Mescal.
Mescal was nominated for a Best Actor Emmy at the 2020 Emmy Awards, however, lost out to Mark Ruffalo in I Know This Much Is True.