The Housekeeper Will Offer A New Twist On Rebecca

2 months ago

Here’s what you need to know

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New details have emerged regarding an upcoming flick starring Uma Thurman, Anthony Hopkins and Phoebe Dynevor. Chronicling a forbidden romance, here’s everything we know so far about The Housekeeper (not to be confused with another upcoming flick, The Housemaid).

The Housekeeper: Plot, Cast, Release Date & More

Notes on a Scandal and Iris director Richard Eyre is collecting stars for his upcoming project, The Housekeeper. First reported by Variety, three actors have signed on to star: two-time Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins, Oscar nominee Uma Thurman, and rising star Phoebe Dynevor, best known for leading the first season of Bridgerton.

What Is The Housekeeper About?

Set in the wilds of Cornwall, Danni (Thurman) is the housekeeper of Manderville Hall, a grand and historic house owned by wealthy widower Lord DeWithers (Hopkins). But when a young, mysterious and beautiful woman arrives – author Daphne Du Maurier (Dynevor) – Danni is drawn into an all-consuming love affair that thrusts her secret longings into the light.

‘Richard [Eyre] is a master storyteller, whose films elicit award-winning performances,’ Hugo Grumbar of production company Embankment Films, says. ‘Beyond the magnetism of its romance, The Housekeeper brims with inventive twists and turns of desire and deceit, and mirrors today’s challenge to find purpose and identity.’

The Cast

Uma Thurman as Dani
Anthony Hopkins as Lord DeWithers
Phoebe Dynevor as Daphne Du Maurier

Is It Based On A Book?

Yes, The Housekeeper is based on a short story by Rose Tremain of the same name, which she has expanded into a forthcoming novel. Tremain also wrote the script for the movie. ‘Rose Tremain’s story grapples with love, fear, fiction, desire, ambition, death and legacy – perhaps epic, whilst providing us with the delicacy of most complex, nuanced characters and unexpected shifts in audience sympathy,’ director Eyre commented. ‘The cast and I hold in our palm a story as rich and turbulent as the landscape that it inhabits, with Manderville Hall holding secrets and emotional intrigue within its historic walls.’

‘The Housekeeper’ was published in 2014 as part of Tremain’s collection, The American Lover. It draws on Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca (1938) for inspiration, fictionalising an encounter Du Maurier had which in turn inspired her to pen her famous gothic novel. Tremain details the events leading up to the novel’s writing, making a character out of Daphne Du Maurier and spotlighting her meeting with housekeeper Mrs Danowski. Their friendship transforms into a love affair, with Tremain building on the ‘Venetian tendencies’ (meaning homosexual desire and referring to ‘the boy within her’) Du Maurier wrote about in her life. In a sense, then, The Housekeeper is a prequel to Rebecca, casting the author into the action – but it also makes references to the original book, filtering them through a new point of view.