‘Custom of the Country’: Matthew Goode, Rose Leslie & More Join Sydney Sweeney led Adaptation of Classic Novel!!

Sydney Sweeney‘s new Edith Wharton adaptation has just added a slew of cast members worthy of a sprawling Gilded Age epic. Joining her in The Custom of the Country are stars from Game of Thrones, Hannibal, and The Wire. Production on the film is now underway.

According to reports, Sweeney and already-announced co-star Leo Woodall will be joined by Josh Finan (How to Get to Heaven From Belfast), Louis Garrel (The Dreamers), Matthew Goode (The Crown), Rose Leslie (Game of Thrones), Martha Plimpton (The Regime), Irene Jacob (The Affair), Hugh Dancy (Law & Order), Ian Hart (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone), James McArdle (Andor), Rosie Sheehy (Pillion), Louisa Harland (Hamnet), Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́ (Doctor Who), Dominic West (The Wire), and Miranda Richardson (Good Omens). The film is based on Wharton’s 1913 novel; Sweeney will star as Undine Spragg, a “new money” Midwestern girl who comes to New York City to find an “old money” husband.

What Other Edith Wharton Works Are Being Adapted For the Screen?

Whartin may have died almost 90 years ago, but her tales of sexual repression, naked ambition, and the clash between old money and new have never been more relevant than in our new Gilded Age. The Buccaneers, which is based on Wharton‘s final, unfinished novel, has been adapted into a series on Apple TV; renewed for a third season late last year, it recently started up production with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ Paul Wesley in tow. Her best known novel, The Age of Innocence, which was famously adapted by Martin Scorsese in 1993, is getting a new miniseries adaptation on Netflix; Kristine Froseth (who also stars in The Buccaneers), Ben Radcliffe, Camila Morrone, and Margo Martindale will star. And while it’s not a direct adaptation of Wharton’s works, HBO‘s The Gilded Age certainly takes inspiration from her oeuvre; its fourth season is now in production.

The Custom of the Country is written and directed by Josie Rourke; an accomplished stage director, it will be her second big-screen feature, after 2018’s Mary Queen of Scots. It is a production of Studiocanal and Rabbit’s Foot Films, and will be produced by Sweeney, Charles Finch, and Alison Owen.