Amblin Partners announced today that it has acquired the rights to Beth O'Leary’s The Switch, with The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star Rachel Brosnahan attached in the leading role and set to executive produce. Bekka Bowling (Thanks for the Memories, Netflix’s Lovesick) is adapting the novel into a screenplay.
Two-time Oscar nominee Kristie Macosko Krieger (The Post, Bridge of Spies) will produce, with O’Leary serving as an executive producer alongside Brosnahan. Amblin Partners’ President of Production Jeb Brody will oversee the project for the studio.
The dramedy centers around a 29-year-old consultant, and her 79-year-old grandmother, who decide to swap lives (including cell phones) for two months, after a series of personal setbacks. While the younger woman moves to a tiny Yorkshire village to tackle the responsibilities of dob walking and neighborhood watch, the older woman finds herself in a tiny London flat, navigating dating apps and starting up a social club for lonely Londoners.
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Brosnahan has won an Emmy and two Golden Globes for her work as Miriam “Midge” Maisel in Amazon’s his comedy The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Bowling, an actor, writer and stand-up comedian, first won acclaim in 2011, when she was runner-up at the Funny Women Awards. As well as her numerous television and film roles, she is known to audiences after being named as a writer on the BBC’s New Talent Hot List.
The Switch, which released in the UK last month and is already a Sunday Times Bestseller, is Beth O’Leary’s second novel. It will publish in the US and Canada on August 18. O’Leary’s debut The Flatshare, which she wrote on the train as she commuted to her day job in children’s publishing, was released last year and was a Sunday Times Top 5 Bestseller that the UK’s Sunday Express described as “set to become the romcom of the year—a Sleepless in Seattle for the 21st century.”
“Beth has written a gorgeous, sweet and funny book in The Switch, and I couldn’t be more excited to start this journey with her,” Krieger said. “As we all know by now, Rachel is an amazing actress and a force to be reckoned with—I’m delighted she’s agreed to come on board as both an actor and executive producer.”
Brosnahan echoed the sentiment, saying: “I am thrilled to be partnering with Amblin to bring Beth O’Leary’s beautiful book to life. I was utterly charmed and deeply moved from the first page to the last and can’t wait to share Leena and Eileen’s story with everyone.”
“I couldn’t be happier that The Switch has found a home with Amblin,” O’Leary said. “I came away from my first call with Kristie, Jeb and the team absolutely buzzing—their vision for The Switch is just so exciting. I’m a huge fan of Rachel, too, so it’s an absolute dream to have her both starring and exec producing. Basically, I’m still pinching myself.”
Brosnahan is next attached to star alongside Anthony Ramos in Amblin’s Distant, which postponed production due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
