David Harrower’s critically successful play Blackbird will fly into theatres over the next 18 months or so, Jean Doumanian Prods have bought the big screen rights and set Harrower to adapt his own work for screen.

Premiering at the Edinburgh Festival in 2005, the two character play revolves around an emotional clash between a woman in her 20’s and an older office working man with whom she shares a sexual past when she was an under-age girl.

After it’s debut, the play was soon transfered to London’s West End where it won a 2007 Oliver Award for a new play in a production starring Jeff Daniels and Alison Pill led for director Joe Mantello.

“When I saw ‘Blackbird’ onstage, I was really struck by the raw, emotional intensity of David Harrower’s characters and their gripping story,” said Doumanian.

No word if Daniels & Pill will be courted for the adaptation, one probably thinks not as Daniels is hardly a box office draw.

I’m always fascinated by these seedy tails of the compatibility between a younger woman and an older man, it’s no wonder that Kubrick’s Lolita is in my top 3 movies he ever made. Though we do have to wonder if Penelope Cruz and Ben Kingsley can’t get a wide release for the similar themed Elegy, what chance will this have?

source - variety