Another adaptation in the books! BBC has just acquired the series The Narrow Road to the Deep North, an adaptation of the Richard Flanagan novel of the same name. Starring Jacob Elordi and Odessa Young, the project is now underway on audiences’ screens.
The Story
The Narrow Road to the Deep North tells the tale of Dorrigo Evans, an Australian veteran and doctor. The story is told through snippets of different sections of Evans’ life, exploring his life before, during, and after his involvement in World War II. As told through his experiences with war and its aftermath, The Narrow Road to the Deep North faces the devastations and long-reaching effects head-on.
While telling this story, Evans meets a woman. Amy Mulvaney is a light in Evans’ life. She offers a moment of light in his troubling story and inspires Evans to be better.
The Cast
Jacob Elordi plays the lead character, Dorrigo Evans. The actor comes to this series after his high of the HBO series Euphoria and the Emerald Fennell project, Saltburn. Starring alongside Elordi is actress Odessa Young, known for her roles in Assassination Nation and The Professor. These two incredible stars play love interests in the series, a passionate story that creates a soft juxtaposition to the conversation of war the series demands.
As this production has already completed filming, the cast is already official. Elordi and Young are surrounded and supported by the ensemble cast, which includes Masa Yamaguchi, Luca Timpano Bilbatua, Joel Aaron Baker, and Max Berkman.
The cast received high praise when the series was in its development stage. A senior development executive at Amazon MGM studios remarked, “With talents like Jacob Elordi, Ciarán Hinds and Odessa Young at the helm, The Narrow Road to the Deep North promises to be a cinematic, visceral, and undeniable contemporary love story, which explores the power of mateship and the strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity.”
The Crew
Justin Kurzel, the director behind the project, is no newbie to the adaptation scene. He directed the video game-to-film adaptation of Assassin’s Creed in 2016. Working with Kruzel is Shuan Grant who makes his debut in the television scene with this project, bringing a new voice to the industry.
BBC could not be more excited about bringing this series to their programming. The head of BBC acquisitions shared in a statement, “The Narrow Road to the Deep North is a complex, beautiful, and heart-wrenching series which sensitively interweaves several stages in the life of surgeon Dorrigo Evans, from the passion of first love, to the unflinching depiction of life as a prisoner of war in occupied Burma.”
The Novel
Australian writer, Richard Flanagan, had his book The Narrow Road to the Deep North released in September of 2013. The novel soon won the Booker Prize, an annual fiction award given to one piece of fiction.
Flanagan found inspiration a little closer to home than expected. The novel was partially inspired by his grandfather’s time at war. A true driving force of the story came from Flanagan’s grandfather’s time as a POW. Flanagan remarked, “You cannot be bound to, or concerned by what those close to you think, with their feelings or concerns, or it will cripple the necessary freedom you need to write something that is true. And yet, I must admit I felt a great responsibility to both those who died such terrible, wretched deaths on the Death Railway and those who survived; to not get it wrong as so many novels and films have got it wrong.”
The Narrow Road to the Deep North, unlike other adaptations of the upcoming year, appears to be arriving sooner rather than later. The production of this project is complete and waiting for distribution. Due to the great acting chops of the main two actors, a project with such gravity and crucial themes is sure to be a powerful watch.
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