Production has begun in Ireland on The Wonder, Netflix's adaptation of the Emma Donoghue novel of the same name, with a cast that includes Florence Pugh, Ciarán Hinds, Niamh Algar, Brían F O'Byrne, Elaine Cassidy and her daughter, Kíla Lord Cassidy.
The psychological thriller is the first production on the streaming giant's new Ireland & the UK features slate and has Chilean director Sebastián Lelio (A Fantastic Woman, Gloria) behind the lens. The cast also includes Tom Burke, Dermot Crowley, Toby Jones and David Wilmot.
Dublin company Element Pictures is among the producers, having previously brought Donoghue's novel Room to the big screen, and Oscar success. The Wonder has been supported by Fis Éireann/Screen Ireland.
The synopsis reads: "The Irish Midlands, 1862 - a young girl stops eating but remains miraculously alive and well.
"English nurse Lib Wright (Florence Pugh) is brought to a tiny village to observe eleven-year-old Anna O'Donnell (Kíla Lord Cassidy). Tourists and pilgrims mass to witness the girl, who is said to have survived without food for months.
"Is the village harbouring a saint 'surviving on manna from Heaven', or are there more ominous motives at work?"
Director Lelio, who has written the screenplay alongside author Donoghue and Normal People's Alice Birch, said: "Bringing the powerful novel The Wonder by Emma Donoghue to the screen not only offers me the chance to portray the collision between reason and faith, individual and community, obedience and rebellion, but also to explore my own interpretation of what a 'period' film can be."
The Wonder will premiere on Netflix next year.
Earlier this week, Black Widow and Little Women star Pugh told her Instagram followers that she had arrived in Ireland to make The Wonder.
