One of the first films to arrive in cinemas as they start to re-open, Summerland sees Gemma Arterton returning to World War II (she starred in 2017’s Their Finest) to play a reclusive writer – a long way from her current Maria Von Trapp cameo in How To Build A Girl.
However, director and writer Jessica Swale admits that she hadn’t originally intended to set the story in the 1940s. It came about so that Arterton’s character, Alice, and the film’s other main character, the young Frank (Lucas Bond) could come together and the solution was to make him an evacuee from Blitz-hit London. His arrival resurrects painful memories from Alice’s past.
She’s somebody who Arterton describes as relishing being difficult and is always watchable, even if she’s not likeable, which the actress says she found satisfying to play. And she also reveals that one of her forthcoming projects, the TV version of the classic Black Narcissus, will be an homage to the original but, as a mini-series, will have more time to dig into the characters.
Summerland is released in cinemas on Friday, 31 July.
