Harry Styles will star in a feature adaptation of Bethan Roberts' acclaimed LGBTQ-themed novel My Policeman from Amazon Studios and producer Greg Berlanti.
Harry Styles is in final negotiations to star in a feature adaptation of Bethan Roberts‘ acclaimed LGBTQ-themed novel My Policeman from Amazon Studios and producer Greg Berlanti, Collider has learned.
Lily James is in negotiations to play the female lead in the currently untitled film, which Tony Award winner Michael Grandage (Genius) is set to direct from a script by Oscar-nominated writer Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia), who adapted Roberts’ 2012 book. Berlanti will produce alongside his husband Robbie Rogers as well as Sarah Schechter via their newly-rechristened Berlanti/Schechter Films.
Cora Palfrey and Philip Herd will also produce for Independent Film Company along with Grandage’s MGC banner, and production is slated to start next spring/summer in England.
My Policeman is set in the 1950s in Brighton, England, where schoolteacher Marion first catches sight of Tom and becomes instantly smitten with the handsome policeman. Then Tom meets Patrick, a museum curator who opens his eyes to a glamorous, sophisticated new world. Though Tom is drawn to Patrick, it is safer for him, in that day and age, to marry Marion. Thus, the two lovers must share him, until one of them breaks and all three lives are forever changed.
The film will employ a flashback structure and take place in the late ’90s, when Tom and Marion take an elderly, invalid Patrick into their home, forcing them to revisit those seismic events from 40 years earlier and Tom’s passionate relationship with Patrick, which came at a time when homosexuality was illegal. Styles will play Tom and James will play Marion.
Amazon landed the rights to My Policeman in a competitive situation, and while Styles’ male co-star has yet to be cast, sources say to expect the 26-year-old actor to be paired with someone a little bit older than him. He was photographed earlier this year with a copy of My Policeman, so he appears to have been prepping for this role for quite awhile.
Styles made his feature debut in Christopher Nolan‘s Dunkirk and was recently cast in Olivia Wilde‘s New Line thriller Don’t Worry Darling. He replaced Shia LaBeouf in that film, joining an impressive cast led by Florence Pugh, Chris Pine and Dakota Johnson.
James’ recent credits include Danny Boyle‘s Yesterday and Edgar Wright‘s Baby Driver. She’ll soon be seen in a pair of Netflix films — Ben Wheatley‘s Rebecca with Armie Hammer, and drama The Dig starring Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan.
Berlanti is among Hollywood’s most prolific producers, and his latest project, Unpregnant, recently debuted on HBO Max. Berlanti is also a producer on the upcoming Ryan Reynolds action comedy Free Guy, and though he and Schechter are involved in more TV shows than even I can keep track of, I’d like to single out the creepy stalker series You, which is well worth a watch on Netflix.
Styles is represented by CAA and Full Stop Management, while James is repped by UTA and Tavistock Wood Management. Berlanti is repped by WME and Felker, Toczek, Suddleson Abramson.
