My Cousin Rachel

My Cousin Rachel (2017)

Did she or didn't she?

A young Englishman plots revenge against his mysterious, beautiful cousin, believing that she murdered his guardian. But his feelings become complicated as he finds himself falling under the beguiling spell of her charms.

Date of release
2017-06-08
TMDB
5.7 / 10 (628)
Runtime
1h 46m
Genres
Drama, Romance
Director
Roger Michell

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: My Cousin Rachel

My Cousin Rachel is a 2017 romantic drama film written and directed by Roger Michell. It is based on the 1951 novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. The film stars Rachel Weisz, Sam Claflin, Iain Glen, Holliday Grainger, and Pierfrancesco Favino. Its plot is about a young man in Cornwall who meets the widow of his older cousin, suspecting her of being responsible for his death.

Production

The film is one of several recent adaptations of Daphne du Maurier's work. In January 2015, Fox Searchlight secured Roger Michell to direct the film and write the screenplay. It is the first cinematic adaptation of My Cousin Rachel since the 1952 film of the same name.

While writing the screenplay, Michell estimated du Maurier intended the story to be set in the 1830s based on the absence of railways and presence of canals, and considered he had previously explored the time period with his Persuasion (1995), based on Jane Austen's work. A difference would be du Maurier's story involved more sex than Austen's.

In September 2015, it was announced Rachel Weisz was in talks to star in the film. She took the role, and envisioned the character as "sexually liberated". The same month, Sam Claflin joined the cast, stating he was interested because Philip was an ordinary, immature character, who was virginal until discovering Rachel.

In February 2016, Holliday Grainger joined the cast, followed by Iain Glen in March. Glen said that when he received the screenplay, he could see Michell had structured the mystery so that Kendall would believe one thing until another piece of evidence arose, and developed his performance accordingly.

Principal photography began on April 4, 2016, and lasted through the spring in England and Italy. With production designer Alice Normington, Michell selected filming locations in South Devon, Oxfordshire and Surrey, combining shots to create an idealistic setting. In Surrey, photography took place at West Horsley Place, a 16th-century building owned by Bamber Gascoigne.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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