Culture 2 min read By Lauren Baxter
Dominic Cooke to direct John Daniel, a film about a woman and a baby gorilla
Director Dominic Cooke will helm John Daniel, a British film based on the true story of a woman's friendship with a baby gorilla in post-World War I England. Cornerstone is selling the project ahead of the American Film Market.
Acclaimed British theater director Dominic Cooke is set to direct a new film, John Daniel, based on the true story of a woman's friendship with a baby gorilla in England after the First World War. The project marks Cooke's first feature since the 2020 spy thriller The Courier, which starred Benedict Cumberbatch.
Cornerstone has acquired the film for worldwide sales and is taking it to the American Film Market, where it will be presented to international buyers. The company is positioning the project as a period drama built around an unusual real-life relationship at the center of the story.
Cooke is best known in theater circles, and he recently staged the stage spin-off Game of Thrones: The Mad King. His move to film follows a career that has moved between stage and screen, and the new project reunites him with the feature format for the first time in several years.
The film's premise draws on a documented episode from the immediate postwar period, when the story of a young woman who formed a bond with a gorilla captured public attention. Source material for the production centers on that friendship and the social setting in which it unfolded, though further details of the cast and production schedule were not disclosed in the announcement.
The sales deal and the American Film Market presentation are early steps in bringing the project to market. Buyers attending the market will be able to review the film's concept and positioning as it seeks distribution partners in territories around the world.
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