Amy Adams‘ Bond Group Entertainment and Jake Gyllenhaal‘s Nine Stories have won the rights to develop a film adaptation of Suzanne Simard‘s recently published memoir, Finding The Mother Tree. Adams is also set to star as Simard, a world-renowned scientist and ecologist who first discovered how trees communicate underground through an immense web of fungi.
The book tells Simard’s unique journey as a mother, a former logger, and an iconoclastic scientist and reveals how trees evolve and communicate. The main focus is Mother Trees: mysterious, powerful forces that connect and sustain all the life that surrounds them. Simard’s revolutionary findings were initially dismissed and ridiculed, but are now firmly supported by research and data.
Simard’s work has been praised as having “planetary significance” and forever changing the way we look at trees. It has inspired authors and filmmakers alike, including the Tree of Souls in James Cameron‘s Avatar to the main character in Richard Powers‘ novel, Overstory.
Simard said in a statement: “The forest has taught me that our relationships – with each other and with the trees, plants, and animals around us – are what make our lives beautiful, strong, and healthy. I’m thrilled to be partnering with the visionaries at Nine Stories and the Bond Group to bring this story to the screen and share it with people everywhere”.
Bond Group and Nine Stories won what was reportedly a bit of a bidding war for the rights to the book, so despite its seemingly esoteric subject matter, there was clearly plenty of interest in Simard’s book. It sounds like a true story that will fit a film adaptation pretty well, hopefully visualising Simard’s findings in a way the book wasn’t able to.
And who knows? Maybe this is finally the role that gets Adams her long-deserved Oscar. It sounds like the kind of film that could be in the awards race. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We’ll wait for more information and see what director hops on board before thinking of any gold statues.
#Peace.Love.FindingTheMotherTree
