Sony Think Timing is Best for Ol Parker’s ‘Now Is Good’

Always a good sign when your sophomore project gets picked up at the midway point of production, as is the case for Ol Parker’s London-shot Now Is Good. Bought by Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions, this could possibly follow other pick-ups to be packaged as a Sony Pictures Classics project later down the line. The tear-jerker drama is comprised of Dakota Fanning in the lead, with supporting perfs from Jeremy Irvine, Paddy Considine, Olivia Williams and Kaya Scodelario, who we look forward in seeing in Andrea Arnold’s upcoming adaptation of Wuthering Heights. We expect a festival 2012 debut for the film.

Gist: Based on Jenny Downham’s debut novel Before I Die, this is about Tessa (Dakota Fanning), a teenager with just a few months to live who makes a list of things to do before she dies, led by the goal of losing her virginity.

Worth Noting: Published in 2007, from wiki: the book was short listed for the 2007 Guardian Award and the 2008 Lancashire Children’s Book of the Year, nominated for the 2008 Carnegie Medal and the 2008 Booktrust Teenage Prize, and won the 2008 Branford Boase Award.

Do We Care?: Though we haven’t dug through the pages of Downham’s novel, we can easily imagine this teenage girl bucket list drama being able to pick-up points among the critical mass. Parker’s debut film “Imagine Me and You,” was a good start and we can appreciate that Fanning is now veering towards picking up more indie cred such as The Motel Life (post production) and Very Good Girls (pre production).