Synchronicity Films Developing Celebrated novelist Andrew O’Hagan’s Mayflies For TV With BAFTA nominee Andrea Gibb Set To Adapt
Celebrated novelist’s recently published work optioned for series, BAFTA nominated screenwriter Andrea Gibb to adapt
Award-winning production company Synchronicity Films (“The Cry”, Only You) is developing a premium limited series based on renowned author Andrew O'Hagan’s latest novel Mayflies, a heart-breaking story of an extraordinary lifelong friendship. Launched in the UK on September 3rd and in North America on 23rd March 2021, Mayflies is published by Faber & Faber in the UK and Commonwealth, and McClelland & Stewart in Canada.
Mayflies will be adapted for the screen by BAFTA nominated Andrea Gibb whose most recent critically acclaimed drama ‘Elizabeth is Missing’ starred double Academy Award-winning Glenda Jackson.
Everyone has a Tully Dawson: the friend who defines your life. In the summer of 1986, in a small Scottish town, James and Tully ignite a brilliant friendship based on music, films and the rebel spirit. With school over and the locked world of their fathers before them, they rush towards the climax of their youth: a magical weekend in Manchester, the epicentre of everything that inspires them in working-class Britain. There, against the greatest soundtrack ever recorded, a vow is made: to go at life differently. Thirty years on, half a life away, the phone rings. Tully has the worst kind of news. Mayflies is a memorial to youth’s euphoria and to everyday tragedy. A tender goodbye to an old union, it discovers the joy and the costs of love.
Claire Mundell, Founder and Creative Director at Synchronicity Films, says “From the very first page Andrew’s beautiful novel had me totally enthralled. His depiction of a life-long friendship spanning the exuberance and promise of youth to the painful realities of later life is at once life-affirming, joyful and heart-breaking. In a time of turmoil, Mayflies is balm for the soul and will resonate with anyone who values the sustaining power of friendship. We cannot wait to bring this adaptation to the screen as a premium, prestige series.”
Andrew O’Hagan adds “I have been overwhelmed by the public response to Mayflies and feel it has found the perfect home with Synchronicity. Andrea Gibb is one of my favourite writers for television and producer Claire Mundell is second to none in her devotion to gripping, emotional, world-class drama. I look forward to supporting the production in every way I can, and encouraging these brilliant people in their task of bringing to the screen my most personal novel yet. It’s a story of friendship, loyalty, youth and growth, and Synchronicity have all the warmth and intelligence to make Mayflies into something special.”
Andrea Gibb adds “Claire Mundell’s Synchronicity is a brilliant Scottish production company and I’m thrilled they've given me this opportunity to adapt Andrew O’Hagan’s beautiful and tender novel. Mayflies is a glorious evocation of youth, friendship and love. In Jimmy and Tully, Andrew has created vivid characters that are universally recognisable but also uniquely individual. It will be a joy to spend time with them.”
Andrew O'Hagan is one of his generation's most exciting and most serious chroniclers of contemporary Britain. He has been shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize, was voted one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists in 2003 and has won the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. He is Editor-At-Large of the London Review of Books, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Andrew O’Hagan is represented by Casarotto Ramsay and Associates and RCW Literary Agency and Andrea Gibb is represented by Curtis Brown.
About Synchronicity Films
Synchronicity Films is an award-winning independent production company, founded and headed by Claire Mundell, headquartered in Glasgow and run with co-directors Mark Young (Chairman) and Adrian Burns (Operations Director), with an office in Melbourne led by Ruth Underwood. Synchronicity develops and produces feature films and television drama which showcases original voices and brings stories to life with energy, passion and dynamism. The company has a growing reputation for finding and developing quality IP. Notable current books Synchronicity is adapting include the Sunday Times / New York Times Bestseller ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’; Booker shortlisted ‘His Bloody Project’; Craig Russel’s popular ‘Lennox’ series of books; a Hanif Kureishi novella ‘The Body’ and several Helen FitzGerald novels. Key credits include double BIFA winning ‘Only You’, BIFA winning ‘Weekend’, Karen Gillan’s BAFTA Film nominated ‘The Party’s Just Beginning’ and BAFTA winning series ‘The Cry’ which also received a Best Actress nomination at the International Emmys for Jenna Coleman. Synchronicity is currently financing it’s next featire film – KILL – starring Ralph Inneson, Lorne MacDonald and Brian Vernel.
About Andrew O’Hagan
Andrew O'Hagan was born in Glasgow in 1968 and grew up in Ayrshire. He has three times been nominated for the Booker Prize and has won the Glenfiddich Writer of the Year Award, the Lost Angeles Times Book Award, and the E.M. Forster Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is Editor-at-Large of the London Review of Books, and is a contributor to Esquire, the New York Review of Books, and the New Yorker. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at King's College London.
About Andrea Gibb
Andrea Gibb is a BAFTA nominated film and television writer, most recently known for the BBC1 drama ‘Elizabeth is Missing’ starring Glenda Jackson. Her feature film Dear Frankie, starring Emily Mortimer and Gerard Butler won the Women in Film and Television Script Award in 2004 and she was nominated for the Carl Foreman Award at the BAFTAs for her feature film Afterlife the following year. Since then, she has worked on a wide range of projects, including adaptations of Vikram Seth's bestselling novel An Equal Music for Cuba Pictures and Raindog Films and Rose Tremain’s Road Home for BBC 2. Her adaptation of Arthur Ransome's children's classic Swallows and Amazons was released in cinemas in August 2016 and has won festival prizes in Seattle and New York.
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