Written in 2018 by Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing has been lauded by critics far and wide and has managed to achieve New York Times’ bestseller status in the fiction category for 32 non-consecutive weeks. A curious tale of mystery and murder, the novel follows a young girl as she navigates her way through certain pivotal life events and finds her way as a woman. Though some could argue that she lost her way somewhere along the line, it is a story that has been soaked up by the masses, being personally selected by Reese Witherspoon’s book club towards the end of 2018. Thus, it is of no surprise that the novel has begun adaptation into a film with the success it has achieved, and we now know that the lead woman will be played by Daisy Edgar-Jones.
Relatively new to Hollywood, Edgar-Jones has become much more well known for her work in television than in film. Most recently she has starred in Hulu’s Normal People and Fox’s War of the Worlds television series, both of which released in the past year, and her name has begun to garner traction. Now, she will star as the protagonist of a rather gritty plot where she will be the main suspect of a heinous crime and is forced to defend herself. Whether she is guilty or not is the big question, and is the reason why the novel has spent so many weeks atop the New York Times’ bestseller list. Owens is hoping to translate the magic of the novel to the silver screen now, and she certainly has some help.
Witherspoon seemingly loved the book so much that she has signed on, along with her production company, to produce the film. Joining her and Edgar-Jones will be Olivia Newman as director, most recently having worked on Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D., and Lucy Alibar as writer, who also wrote the screenplay for 2019’s Troop Zero. In a relatively male-dominated industry, this film is set to be an all-female affair with a top-notch cast and crew already in place. The film is still in the very early stages of production with no set release date in sight, but it is safe to say that the film adaptation for Where the Crawdads Sing is poised for just as much success as the novel when that release date is officially announced.
