Courtesy of L’Iconoclaste
After winning France’s top literary award, Jean-Baptiste Andrea’s novel “Watching Over Her,” a decade-spanning epic romance, is set for a screen adaptation.
Muriel Sauzay and François Ivernel, two former top-level executives at French major Pathé, won a bidding war to secure rights to the Goncourt-prizewinning book from the publishing house L’Iconoclaste.
“Watching Over Her” already ranks as one of the best-selling Goncourt winners in the prize’s 121-year history, having sold over 700,000 copies to date. The book has so far been translated into 34 languages, and will soon published in English by Atlantic Books. “Watching Over Her” has also received the Fnac Novel Prize and recently snatched up the Grand Prix des Lectrices Elle. Sauzay’s banner Maremako and Ivernel’s outfit Montebello will be developing the screen adaptation and are currently assembling a creative team.
Set against the backdrop of political turmoil in 20th-century Italy, “Watching Over Her” charts a sweeping love story between Mimo, a brilliant yet impoverished sculptor, and Viola, the wealthy daughter of a powerful family, who lose each other many times over the course of their lifetime.
Andrea said he was “thrilled at the prospect of seeing the characters from (his) novel come to life on screen, in the vivid colors and shadows of a past world that feels so contemporary.”
Ivernel and Sauzay described “Watching Over Her” as “an inventive epic and a reflection of our contemporary obsessions, animated by highly romantic characters, rich plots with twists, and unforgettable scenes that predestine the book for screen adaptation.”
Speaking to Variety about the adaptation project, Sauzay said “it could be seen as a European twist on ‘Once Upon in America,’ looking at Italy’s tumultuous history throughout the 20th century, the rise of fascism, world wars and many earthquakes.” “The novel is both intelligent and accessible, and it tells a story that’s universal and resonates with the current political climate,” added Sauzay, who spend two decades at Studiocanal and Pathé where she worked in sales and financing of international films.
Over at Maremako, which she co-founded in 2012, she worked as an associate producer on the Amazon series “Salade Grecque” by Cédric Klapisch and “Le Nouveau Jouet” by James Huth.
Ivernel, who spent 27 years at Pathé, serving as president from 2007 to 2013, founded Montebello in 2014 and produced the Canal+ series “Ovnis.”
L’Iconoclaste, founded by Sophie de Sivry in 1998, has been publishing works by a new generation of authors, such as Adeline Dieudonné, Cécile Coulon, Julia Kerninon.
