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First Look: Saoirse Ronan in Adaptation of Best-Selling Memoir ‘The Outrun’

Saoirse first look

First Look: Saoirse Ronan in Adaptation of Best-Selling Memoir ‘The Outrun’

Saoirse Ronan has gone green in this first-look still from Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun, in which the Oscar nominee plays a recovering alcoholic fresh out of rehab.

Based on the best-selling memoir by Amy Liptrot (which Fingscheidt adapted in collaboration with Liptrot), the film is being sold worldwide by Protagonist Pictures, with CAA Media Finance co-repping for North America.

The Outrun sees Ronan star as Rona, who returns to the wild Orkney Islands after coming out of rehab and more than a decade away. As she reconnects with the dramatic landscape where she grew up, memories of her childhood merge with the more recent challenging events that have set her on the path to recovery.

Studiocanal will release the film in their territories of the U.K., France and Germany & Austria. Cineart will release the film in Benelux, and Filmcoopi and Cineworx will handle the film in Switzerland. Sony Pictures’ Stage 6 Films has picked up all other international territories.

The Outrun was optioned by Brock Media’s Sarah Brocklehurst, who is developing and producing alongside Ronan, Jack Lowden and Dominic Norris under their recently founded banner, Arcade Pictures. They are joined by co-producers Jonas Weydemann and Jakob D. Weydemann of Weydemann Bros, and Shirin Hartmann.

Protagonist Pictures is executive producing with Luane Gauer, George Hamilton, James Pugh and Janina Vilsmaier serving as executive producers alongside Claudia Yusef for BBC Film, Kieran Hannigan for Screen Scotland and Maria Logan and Anne Sheehan for MBK.

BBC Film and Screen Scotland supported development of the project and are funding production alongside MBK Productions. Funding is also provided by FFA, Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg, MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, and Film and Medienstiftung NRW.

Liptrot’s memoir of the same name won the 2016 Wainwright Prize and 2017 PEN Ackerley Prize and was a Sunday Times top 10 best-seller. The book was translated into 15 languages, selling over 110,000 copies in the U.K. alone, and was added by publisher Canongate to its modern classics list, The Canons. Rebecca Watson of VHA negotiated the film deal for the book on behalf of James Macdonald Lockhart of Antony Harwood Ltd.