Fun
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Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
ITV and Amazon Studios are teaming for a new adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s classic 1848 novel Vanity Fair. The seven-part drama has set Olivia Cooke to star as heroine Becky Sharp. Shooting begins in September with Mammoth Screen (Poldark, Victoria) producing.
Written by Gwyneth Hughes (Dark Angel, The Girl), the TV transfer is set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, and follows Sharp as she attempts to claw her way out of poverty and scale the heights of English Society. Her story of villainy, crime, merriment, lovemaking, jilting, laughing, cheating, fighting and dancing, takes her all the way to the court of King George IV, via the Battle of Waterloo, breaking hearts and losing fortunes along the way.
There have been several screen adaptations of the Thackeray novel, including the 2004 feature with Reese Witherspoon as Becky, and a 1998 BBC version.
Busy Bates Motel actress Cooke, whose feature credits include Me And Earl And The Dying Girl, The Limehouse Golem and Thoroughbred, is also starring in Steven Spielberg’s 2018 sci-fi thriller Ready Player One. She’s repped by CAA.
Vanity Fair will be produced by Julia Stannard (War & Peace) with James Strong (Broadchurch) directing. Mammoth Screen’s Damien Timmer is exec producing with Hughes, Strong and Tom Mullens (Endeavour, Poldark).
ITV Studios Global Entertainment is handling international distribution.
