Roadside Attractions has acquired U.S. rights to Hemingway’s Garden of Eden, directed by John Irvin and starring Mena Suvari, Jack Huston, Caterina Murino, Richard E. Grant, Matthew Modine and Carmen Maura. The screenplay was adapted from the Ernest Hemingway book by former Paris Review editor James Scott Linville, and is based on Hemingway’s final novel, a jazz-age set, erotically-charged romance that was published posthumously in 1986. Hemingway’s Garden of Eden was produced for Tranquil Seas by Lorne Thyssen and Timothy J. Lewiston. The acquisition was announced by Roadside Attractions co-presidents Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff and Ian Jessel, president of Tranquil Seas, USA.
“Ernest Hemingway is one of a handful of genius writers whose work leaps from the page to the screen brilliantly,” said Cohen, “and his Garden of Eden is lush and vibrant, in the tradition of other great Hemingway adaptations like The Sun Also Rises.”
The Garden of Eden remains one of the author’s most debated novels, and is considered a departure from his usual work as it is widely accepted the novel is far more reflective of his personal life, perhaps even semi autobiographical. The fact the book was not published until after his suicide has sparked debate as to whether the erotic nature of it was such that he never wished it published at all.
Set in the jazz age of the 1920s, the story follows a successful young American writer, David Bourne (Jack Huston), and his beautiful wife, Catherine (Mena Suvari), on their extended honeymoon in Europe. Catherine soon becomes restless and starts to test her husband’s devotion, pushing him to the limits of her erotic imagination and luring a sultry Italian girl, Marita (Caterina Murino) into their inner circle. With the stakes continually ratcheting higher, the events that follow change their lives forever.
The deal was negotiated on behalf of the filmmakers by Tranquil Seas’ Ian Jessel and Tim Johnson and Emily MacKintosh of Field Fisher Waterhouse, and attorney Greg Bernstein on behalf of Roadside Attractions.
A Tranquil Seas Production and a United Kingdom/Spain Co-Production present a Devonshire Productions film, in association with Berwick Street Productions PLC and Freeform Spain SL, Hemingway’s Garden of Eden. Mena Suvari, Jack Huston, Caterina Murino with Matthew Modine and Richard E. Grant. Produced by Lorne Thyssen, Tim Lewiston, Bob Mahoney. Based on the novel “The Garden of Eden” by Ernest Hemingway. Screenplay by James Scott Linville. Directed by John Irvin.
