Josh Finnan, a rising British star best known for recent TV work such as The Responder (nominated for a BAFTA TV Award), The Gentleman, Say Nothing (as Gerry Adams) and this year’s Waiting for the Out, has landed his first major film role.
The actor, who most recently starred in the Netflix comedy How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, is set to co-star with Sidney Sweeney and Leo Woodall in Custom of the Country, Variety reports.
The film, directed by Josie Rourke (Mary Queen of Scots) and currently in production, is based on Edith Wharton’s classic novel of the same name, produced for Studio Canal and Charles Finch’s Rabbit’s Foot Films. Rourke adapted the novel and wrote the screenplay.
In “Customs of the Country,” Sweeney will play Undine Spragg, “a fiercely ambitious Midwesterner striving for social heights in turn-of-the-century New York,” according to the logline. “Armed with beauty, daring/bravery, and pure willpower/unwavering ambition, Undine takes on entrenched elites while fearlessly seeking controversy until love and destiny align.” Variety understands that Finan, who will play Spragg’s husband Ralph Marvel, will have a key role in the film.
The film’s producers include Finch, Sweeney, Alison Owen of Monumental Pictures (who reunited with Studiocanal after Back to Black), and Studiocanal. Studiocanal is overseen by Ron Halpern, executive vice president of global production, Shana Eddy Groof, chief creative officer of the United States, and Isabelle Carter, vice president of development and production.
Custom of the Country is fully funded by Studiocanal and will be released theatrically in Studiocanal’s territories (UK, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Poland and Benelux). Worldwide sales for the feature film began recently at the European Film Market in Berlin.
Finan is represented by Insight Management & Production, Range, and Public Eye.
