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Based on the uber-popular Delia Owens novel of the same name, the movie adaptation of Where The Crawdads Sing hits cinemas later this month. A project that’s come to fruition largely thanks to one Ms Reese Witherspoon, she acquired the rights to rewrite the novel for the big screen after reading it as part of her online book club almost four years ago.
Quickly falling in love with the story, the novel shot to the top of the New York Times best-sellers list after Reese’s endorsement of it – with Amazon also naming it its highest-selling fiction book of 2019.
Enjoying continued success since then, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t read the book and subsequently raved about it to just about everyone they know (I finished it not too long ago and did exactly that).
Due for release this July, filming wrapped on the project last summer so here’s everything we know about the movie so far.
Sticking very closely to the plot of the original novel, the movie centres on main character Kya – a.k.a. the infamous “Marsh Girl”. Abandoned by her family at the tender age of six, Kya is forced to fend for herself from her home in the unforgiving setting of the North Carolina marshes. Ostracised from the surrounding community, she’s lived alone in her shack for years until suddenly, she finds herself the sole suspect in a local murder case.
Revealing who’d be taking on the lead role towards the end of 2020, Normal People star Daisy Edgar-Jones was named as Kya. Claiming that she “read the book in a day and a half”, she’s clearly as big a fan of the project as the rest of us are and we look forward to seeing how she brings the character to life.
Set to star alongside two male leads, Taylor John Smith and Harris Dickinson will take on the roles of Tate Walker and Chase Andrews respectively – Tate, a young fisherman who takes Kya under his wing and Chase, the star quarterback who ultimately finds himself dead.
Other names set to feature include Garret Dillahunt who was cast as Pa, Michael Hyatt as Mabel and Sterling Macer Jr as Jumpin.
Confirming that filming had come to a close last July, Daisy shared a few < target="_blank" rel="noopener">behind-the-scenes photos to her social media in honour of the occasion. Writing that it had been a “wonderful few months” working on the project, she went on to say that she “can’t wait” for everyone “to see Kya’s marsh in all its glory”. “That’s a heckin wrap!!! See you way out yonder,” she finished.
Earlier this year, the first trailer for the movie dropped. A seamless blend of romance and thriller, the action opens in the courtroom, with Kya’s lawyer telling the jury, “I, like you, have heard the tall tales told about the Marsh Girl. An abandoned child. A little girl surviving in the marsh on her own, reviled and shunned.”
Clips of Kya as a girl, and later as a teenager and young woman, play out as he speaks. “Sometimes, I feel so invisible, I wonder if I’m here at all,” she says to Tate, before the montage shows her meeting Chase for the first time. Things take a turn for the worse when Chase’s cold, lifeless body is found lying in the marsh and thus begins the hunt to find the infamous Marsh Girl.
“In spite of everything trying to stomp it out, life persists,” Kya says. “Way out yonder where the crawdads sing, the marsh knows one thing above all else; every creature does what it must to survive.”
Excitedly sharing the trailer with fans online, Daisy wrote that her heart is “so full” at seeing the project come to life, while Reese echoed much the same thoughts adding, “This story has such a special place in my heart and to see Delia Owens words come to life is true movie magic!”
The trailer also features a new original song penned by Taylor Swift, who loved the book so much that she wanted to create a musical accompaniment to match it
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“Where The Crawdads Sing is a book I got absolutely lost in when I read it years ago,” she told fans. “As soon as I heard there was a film in the works starring the incredible Daisy Edgar-Jones and produced by the brilliant Reese Witherspoon, I knew I wanted to be a part of it from the musical side.
“I wrote the song ‘Carolina’ alone and asked my friend Aaron Dessner to produce it. I wanted to create something haunting and ethereal to match this mesmerising story. You’ll hear it fully soon.”
Where The Crawdads Sing arrives in Irish cinemas on July 22… which gives us *just enough* time to reread the book ahead of then.