Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series, highlighting the year’s most talked about screenplays, continues with Andrew Haigh’s romantic fantasy We are all strangers. Haigh directed and wrote the film, which was loosely inspired by Taichi Yamada’s 1987 novel Strangers.
One night in his empty high-rise in modern-day London, Adam (Andrew Scott) has a chance encounter with his neighbor Harry (Paul Mescal), which disrupts the rhythm of his everyday life. As Adam and Harry grow closer, Adam is drawn back to his childhood home, where his long-dead parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell) are apparently both still alive and looking as old as the day they died 30 years ago.
The film premiered in Telluride and played at numerous festivals including New York, London and AFI.
When Haigh’s longtime editor Jonathan Alberts read the script for the first time, he saw the writer-director breaking new ground. “It seemed to me that what you were trying to do was a little bit different than what you’ve done before,” Alberts told Haigh in Deadline’s “The Process,” “within the same Andrew Haigh family, but definitely something that it was” t.” “Maybe it wasn’t exactly what you were comfortable with.”
Haigh explains: “Usually my films are quite based in reality, so it was definitely a bit nerve-wracking to make something that quickly goes from reality to story.”
The other most intimidating aspect of the project for the filmmaker was the fact that, while it wasn’t autobiographical, it was still extremely personal to him. “People who know me know how much of me is in the film… They basically say, ‘If you don’t like this, I feel like that means you basically don’t like me.’ ‘Personal level.’”
We are all strangers won the British Independent Film Awards in early December, winning a total of seven awards, including best film, director, screenplay and supporting actor, as well as three awards for Craft.
Although it ultimately came up empty, it led the way with the most Gotham Awards nominations. At the Film Independent Spirit Awards next February, the film has a chance to win three awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor.
Searchlight has scheduled a limited domestic release of the film for today.
Click below to read the script:
Source: Deadline
Ashley Root is an author and celebrity journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a keen eye for all things celebrity, Ashley is always up-to-date on the latest gossip and trends in the world of entertainment.
