According to Deadline, casting has begun on the film adaptation of the Morgan Lloyd Malcolm play The Wasp. Naomie Harris (Moonlight) and Natalie Dormer will play the key female roles in the film (Game of Thrones). In keeping with the play that premiered in 2015 at London’s Hampstead Theatre, the film will chronicle the unexpected events that follow two friends’ reunions. Once very close, the two buddies have drifted apart since high school. After years apart, the two of them decided to get back together, and it was then that Heather made a proposal that would alter the course of their lives irrevocably.
Lloyd Malcolm described the complicated dynamic between the play’s two female protagonists in a 2015 interview. How our previous hurts and traumas might affect who we are now as adults are examined. She explained that while the story does touch on bullying and abuse, it also highlights the importance of friendship and generosity. “It’s about the effect that words and deeds have on one another and being conscious of that effect on others around you.” Harris has appeared in several films, including Skyfall, Spectre, and No Time to Die, as Moneypenny, making her a household name.
Her most recent roles were in Swan Song for Apple TV+ and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, both directed by Andy Serkis for Sony/Marvel. Dormer, on the other hand, is well-known for her roles as the politically adept Margaery Tyrell on “Game of Thrones” and the similarly clever but passionately driven Anne Boleyn on “The Tudors.” Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, and Elementary all featured her as a leading actress. The biopic Audrey’s Children, written and directed by Ami Canaan Mann, just cast the actress in the role of Dr Audrey Evans. Guillem Morales, a previous winner of the British Academy Film Award, will helm The Wasp (Inside No. 9).
Malcolm developed the script for XYZ Films. Matthew B. Schmidt of Paradise City Films, James Harris and Leonora Darby of Tea Shop Productions, Sean Sorensen of Royal Viking Entertainment, and Nate Bolotin and Maxime Cottray of XYZ Films all served as producers. In the month of November, filming will start in Bath, UK. Dates for the release of The Wasp have not been set.