Jodhi May & Roger Allam
in Blackbird
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A film version of David Harrower's Blackbird will be developed by Jean Doumanian Productions, with Harrower adapting his play for the screen. Doumanian, Woody Allen's former producing partner, had recently announced that she will produced a film version of August: Osage County with a screenplay by its Tony-winning author Tracy Letts.
Blackbird is a two-person drama about the face-off between a middle-aged man and the now-grown young woman with whom he had a relationship when she was in her early teens. Premiering at the Edinburgh Festival in 2005, Blackbird transferred to London's West End, where it starred Roger Allam and Jodhi May and won the 2007 Olivier Award for New Play. A well-reviewed off-Broadway production at Manhattan Theatre Club opened in the spring of 2007 starring Jeff Daniels and Alison Pill and directed by Joe Mantello. Cate Blanchett directed the play's Australian premiere for the Sydney Theater Company, and Variety reports that CSI star William Petersen will star in a production at Chicago's Victory Gardens Theatre next summer.
"When I saw Blackbird onstage, I was really struck by the raw, emotional intensity of David Harrower's characters and their gripping story," Doumanian told Variety. No casting for the film version of Blackbird has been set.