He’s had some success with a period film about one successful woman in My Week With Marilyn, so Simon Curtis is now trying his luck with a tale of five young ladies looking to secure their future. He’s entered talks to direct a new cinematic adaptation of Edith Wharton’s1938 novel, The Buccaneers.
The story finds five wealthy, ambitious American socialites who tire of trying to find suitable husbands in New York. So they head to England to take part in the London season and track down landed but impoverished gentlemen who would make likely matches.
Wharton died in 1937 leaving the book unfinished and it was published the following year without a conclusion. Then in 1993, after studying the synopsis and notes, Wharton scholar Marion Mainwaring finished the novel. And, independently, the BBC hired Maggie Wadey to adapt and finish the novel herself for a miniseries that hit screens in 1995 and included among its cast a young Carla Gugino, Mira Sorvino and Sienna Guillory (see the pic above).
Now BBC Films and Saving Mr. Banks producers Ruby Films have a script in hand from Heidi Thomas and are negotiating a deal to have Curtis make the movie.