Metro International is launching sales on the World War 2 set film ahead of the virtual Cannes market.
Set in rural Cornwall, Late in Summer will chart a brief encounter between a lonely farmer’s wife (Emily Watson) and a Black American GI that leads to first love in middle life and an impossible choice.
Novelist Talitha Stevenson will make her directorial debut from her own script. Production is scheduled for autumn, 2021. Genesius’s Debbie Gray (Good Luck to You Leo Grande) is producing with Timothy Spall (Mr Turner) aboard as executive-producer.
Oscar-winning costume designer Jenny Beavan (Mad Max: Fury Road); Oscar-winning composer Dario Marianelli (Atonement); production designer Jennifer Williams (Christopher Robin); and editor Helle Le Hevre (The Souvenir) are all on board.
Metro International Head of Sales, Natalie Brenner said: “It’s a rare thing for any love story to reflect the sensuality of an older woman discovering the thrill of first love in middle age. In the hands of Talitha Stevenson, an exciting new talent with a supremely cinematic vision, supported by an outstanding production team and coupled with the luminous brilliance of Emily Watson and the charismatic intelligence of Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, this promises to deliver a searing and profoundly moving love story for an often-underserved audience that we know the market craves.”
Akinnuoye-Agbaje is an actor, director, and former fashion model known for his roles in Oz, The Mummy Returns, The Bourne Identity and more. His feature directorial debut was the semi-autobiographical film Farming starring Damson Idris.