Press release

MONUMENTAL PICTURES MAKING MOVIE VERSION OF EMMA DONOGHUE'S BESTSELLER "FROG MUSIC"

LONDON, January 15, 2016 – Alison Owen's and Debra Hayward's Monumental Pictures is set to make a big screen adaptation of Emma Donoghue's FROG MUSIC.

Donoghue, recently Oscar®, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominated for ROOM which she adapted from her own bestselling novel, is set to write the screenplay based on her novel, FROG MUSIC. The novel, her eighth and a New York Times Bestseller, is set in the summer of 1876 in San Francisco, in the grip of a record-breaking heatwave, a smallpox epidemic and festering racism and fear, and is inspired by the real-life unsolved case of the murder of a young woman, Jenny Bonnet. In order to bring the murderer to justice her friend, a French burlesque dancer, must risk everything to try and piece all the fragments of Jenny's life together.

Alison Owen is producing alongside Scott LaStaiti who is funding development through his recently formed Palantir Group. Caroline Davidson of Caroline Davidson Literary Agency and Charlotte Knight of Knight Hall Agency repped Donoghue in the deal which was negotiated by Billy Hinshelwood and Michael Winter for Monumental and Palantir.

Owen says: "I couldn't be more excited to be working with Emma, who deserves every bit of the huge success she is having with ROOM, an amazing book and an amazing movie. FROG MUSIC shares the same qualities of suspense and extraordinary characters, this time in a period setting, and I feel so privileged to shepherd it into an equally extraordinary movie."

About Monumental Pictures

Monumental Pictures was set up in 2014 by Oscar®-nominated and BAFTA winning producers Alison Owen and Debra Hayward. Last year ITV Studios Global took a minority stake in their television shingle, Monumental Television.

Owen previously established Ruby Films in 1998 and consistently produced award-winning, commercial film and television projects with credits including SAVING MR. BANKS, THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL, JANE EYRE, the seven-Emmy award winning TEMPLE GRANDIN, and the International-Emmy winning SMALL ISLAND. She recently produced SUFFRAGETTE for Pathé and ME BEFORE YOU for MGM and is currently in post-production on TULIP FEVER for The Weinstein Company.
Hayward produced the Golden Globe winning LES MISÉRABLES with Cameron Mackintosh Limited and Working Title Films. Prior to that, she was a creative driving force behind UK production company, Working Title Films, where she oversaw many of their hit titles, serving as Executive Producer on films including TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY, FROST/NIXON, NANNY McPHEE, ATONEMENT, BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY and PRIDE & PREJUDICE. She recently wrapped on the third instalment of the Bridget Jones series, BRIDGET JONES'S BABY for Working Title and Universal.

About Scott LaStaiti

Scott LaStaiti has eighteen years of experience in both network television and feature film. As a producer and an executive he has worked on more than 20 feature films, and 166 hours of network television, and is well-versed in all facets of development, production, and finance. He recently produced the feature film JANE GOT A GUN, directed by Gavin O’Conner (WARRIOR, MIRACLE, PRIDE AND GLORY) and starring Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor and Joel Edgerton, which is slated for release on January 29, 2016. He recently wrapped on the 1980s romance movie, CRUISE, for AG Studios.
Along with Greg Bailey he recently launched Palantir Group Inc, a venture capital entertainment fund established to acquire and develop high profile intellectual property for film and television.

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