Working Title Films, Focus Features Nab Rights To ‘Set My Heart to Five’ Book With Edgar Wright Attached To Direct

Amanda N'Duka

March 31, 2020 at 5:14 p.m.·2 min read

Working Title Films, Focus Features, and Compete Fiction Pictures have teamed on the film rights to develop Simon Stephenson’s debut novel Set My Heart to Five, with Baby Driver helmer Edgar Wright attached to direct. The book is slated for release later this year via HarperCollins imprints Hanover Square Press (U.S.) and 4th Estate (UK).

Stephenson will adapt the screenplay from his own manuscript. The story is said to take place in an all-too human 2054 and introduces Jared, an android who undergoes an emotional awakening and embarks on a quest to convince humans that he and his kind should be permitted to feel. It’s a quest, sparked in part by Jared’s introduction to 80’s and 90’s movies, that leads to an unforgettable adventure across the West Coast of America, after he determines to write a film script that will change the world.

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The film deal for the book was brokered by Luke Speed of the Curtis Brown Group on behalf of Sophie Lambert of C&W Agency.

Edgar Wright’s next movie, which is also set up at Focus, is the psychological thriller Last Night in Soho starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Thomasin McKenzie, and Matt Smith. It’s currently scheduled for a September 25 theatrical release.

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