Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the year’s most talked-about scripts continues with Yorgos Lanthimos‘ Poor Things, the darkly comedic genre-bender penned by Tony McNamara that marks a reunion of the Greek filmmaker with McNamara and star Emma Stone after 2018’s Oscar-nominated The Favourite.
A visually stunning adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s same-name 1992 novel, Poor Things just won a pair of Golden Globes: for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and for Stone, who along with Willem Dafoe also picked up SAG Awards nominations today. It’s up for 13 Critics Choice Awards this weekend.
Set in Victorian London, the Searchlight film tells the story of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Dafoe). Under Baxter’s protection, this woman with the mind of a child is eager to learn. But as she grows hungry for the worldliness she is lacking — and for sex, specifically — she runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, she grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.
World premiering at the Venice Film Festival, where it got a standing ovation exceeding 10 minutes and won the Golden Lion, Poor Things also stars Ramy Youssef, Jerrod Carmichael and Christopher Abbott.
McNamara, previously Emmy-nominated for writing on his Hulu series The Great, scored an Oscar nomination for his and Deborah Davis’ original screenplay of The Favourite, a comedic drama set amid the early 18th century court intrigue of Queen Anne. His movie credits also include co-writing the Stone-starring Disney pic Cruella.
Up next for Lanthimos and Stone, meanwhile, is Kinds of Kindness, an as-yet-undated anthology film also to be distributed by Searchlight, which also stars Jesse Plemons, Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie and Hunter Schafer.
But for now, click below to read the Poor Things script.
Get Film Insurance Today
Author: