Netflix plans to unearth a film adaptation of John Preston’s Kirkus-starred 2016 historical novel, The Dig, next month.
The company will release the film in theaters on Jan. 15 and on its streaming service two weeks later, on Jan. 29. A trailer for The Dig, which stars Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Rebecca’s Lily James, and Emma’s Johnny Flynn, was released yesterday:
In the novel, set in the late 1930s, Edith Pretty, a wealthy widow in Suffolk, England, retains the services of Basil Brown, a local soil expert and amateur archaeologist, to find out what might be buried beneath earthen mounds on her property. He makes an extremely important archaeological find that attracts the attention of Cambridge University archaeologist Charles Phillips, who seizes control of the site and brings in his colleagues Stuart and Peggy Piggott. As the story unfolds, Preston presents events from the perspectives of Edith, Basil, and Peggy. “As homey at times as chamomile tea but spiked with pointed undercurrents, this is a real treat for a reader who can appreciate its quiet pleasures,” noted Kirkus’ review.
The novel is a fictionalization of a true story, and its main characters were real people; Peggy Piggott, played by James in the film, was Preston’s aunt. In 2007, the English author wrote about the novel’s genesis in an essay for the Telegraph, in which he stated that “the novel that I’ve written sticks, as far as possible, to what actually happened.” The movie version appears to make Edith Pretty somewhat younger than she was at the time, however; in reality, she was in her mid-50s when the dig occurred, and in the film, she’s played by Mulligan, who was 34 during production.
Mulligan won a BAFTA Award for her portrayal of Lynn Barber in the 2010 film of Barber’s memoir, An Education. She also memorably played Daisy Buchanan in the 2013 movie version of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic The Great Gatsby. Fiennes also won a BAFTA Award for his role in the acclaimed 1993 movie version of Thomas Keneally’s novel Schindler’s List, and he received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for 1996’s The English Patient, based on the book by Michael Ondaatje.
David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.
