An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar meets with Element Pictures and Hulu for an Exclusive Preview of Lenny Abrahamson’s adaptation of Normal People
Posted: 28th September 2019
Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland is delighted to announce that An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will meet with key executives from Element Pictures, Hulu and Endeavour to discuss Irish production company Element Pictures and Hulu’s new television series Normal People, based on Sally Rooney’s award-winning book of the same name.
The meeting will discuss the US release and international distribution of Normal People as well as its world sales potential, followed by exclusive preview clips of the series.
Supported by Screen Ireland and produced by Element Pictures, Normal People is a 12-part drama for BBC Three and Hulu, with Endeavour representing international sales. Directed by Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie McDonald, and adapted by Sally Rooney, alongside writers Alice Birch and Mark O’Rowe, filming for the series took place in Dublin, Sligo and Italy earlier this year. The series and novel tracks the tender but complicated relationship of Marianne and Connell from the end of their school days in small-town west of Ireland to their undergraduate years at Trinity College Dublin.
In 2019, Screen Ireland established a new TV Drama production fund aimed at supporting high-end episodic TV drama with the potential to sell internationally. Normal People is the first large scale indigenous TV drama that Screen Ireland has supported. Other up and coming TV dramas include The South Westerlies, produced by Deadpan Pictures and Darklands, produced by Parallel Films.
An Taoiseach’s meeting with Element Pictures will also be followed by a meeting with executives from Fox Searchlight Pictures, where the company will announce its renewal of the first-look deal with Element Pictures, originally signed in September 2018. The successful partnership between the companies resulted in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite, nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 2019 and winning Best Actress in a Leading Role for Olivia Colman’s performance in the film.