Ellen Page has had one of the most diverse careers of anyone her age, launching to fame with her breakthrough role in Juno, which earned her an Oscar nomination five years ago.
Before that, she’d given an exceptional performance opposite Patrick Wilson in Hardy Candy, and has since continued to make a name for herself in the likes of Christopher Nolan’s Inception, James Gunn’s Super, and most recently Woody Allen’s To Rome with Love.
With two of her upcoming films debuting this month at Sundance, Variety’s Justin Sneider reports that Page is now attached to star in the adaptation of Into the Forest, a novel by Jean Hegland.
The novel is set in a kind of post-apocalyptic world, but the premise sounds like it has a firm grounding in drama, too. Courtesy of Amazon, here’s the synopsis for the original novel:
“Set in the near-future, Into the Forest is a powerfully imagined novel that focuses on the relationship between two teenage sisters living alone in their Northern California forest home.
Over 30 miles from the nearest town, and several miles away from their nearest neighbor, Nell and Eva struggle to survive as society begins to decay and collapse around them. No single event precedes society’s fall. There is talk of a war overseas and upheaval in Congress, but it still comes as a shock when the electricity runs out and gas is nowhere to be found. The sisters consume the resources left in the house, waiting for the power to return. Their arrival into adulthood, however, forces them to reexamine their place in the world and their relationship to the land and each other.
Reminiscent of Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale, Into the Forest is a mesmerizing and thought-provoking novel of hope and despair set in a frighteningly plausible near-future America.”
Page is one of the finest young actresses of her generation, with her credits proving her capable of so much already, from independent features to blockbusters.
She’ll be heading to Park City in a matter of days, starring alongside Rosemarie DeWitt and Scoot McNairy in Lynn Shelton’s Touchy Feely and opposite Alexander Skarsgård, Brit Marling, and Toby Kebbell in Zal Batmanglij’s The East, both of which we’re hoping will be coming to Sundance London in April.
No word yet on who will be taking the helm or penning the script, but the dramatic tones of the novel’s synopsis suggests that we could have another film like Gareth Edwards’ Monster on our hands, and that would be exceptional. Here’s to hoping the project will come together nicely with Page on board. More as we get it.
