Phoebe Dynevor to Play Daphne Du Maurier in 'The Housekeeper'

The 2024 American Film Market in Las Vegas begins November 5, when everyone's attention will be focused elsewhere, but that doesn't mean the deals that ensure next year's movie productions can start filming aren't going to be struggling to find investors. This is the crossroads of blockbuster and indie, where packages are assembled and marketed. It's primarily American films for the American markets; however, a few British-studded dramas always appear. This year includes a feature-length 1930s-set period piece that's a new spin on the classic Daphne Du Maurier novel Rebecca.

Titled The Housekeeper, the film is based on Dame Rose Tremain's short story of the same name from her recent collection of short stories, The American Lover. Tremain sold the producers on a film adaptation of her story from a fleshed-out, full-length novel version, an adaptation she would write. The script is done, the cast is set, and the expanded novel version will probably be out close to the film's debut. Now, all the movie needs is a production studio to snap it up.

The film's conceit is that is portrays the events in Du Maurier's life that led her to write her famous book, though we should note the story is entirely fictional. Tremain's short story focuses on a young woman who has a brief affair with the author only to pick up a copy of the newly published Rebecca and find herself as a character in the story.