The End We Start From: Jodie Comer dystopian thriller lands North American distribution

Around eight months ago, we heard that the apocalyptic thriller The End We Start From, an adaptation of author Megan Hunter’s 2017 debut novel (you can pick up a copy of Hunter’s novel at THIS LINK), and was filming in London. Now Deadline reports that Paramount’s Republic Pictures label has picked up the North American distribution rights to the film, which stars Jodie Comer of Killing Eve and Free Guy, Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), Mark Strong (1917), Joel Fry (Yesterday), Gina McKee (My Policeman), Nina Sosanya (His Dark Materials), and Katherine Waterston (Alien: Covenant).

There are a couple surprises for me in this announcement. First, I figured that a movie with a cast like that would have secured North American distribution long ago. Second, I didn’t know that Paramount is reviving the Republic Pictures name. Republic was founded in 1935 as its own studio and has had a lot of ups and downs and gone in several different directions over the decades. It had been dormant for a while, so it’s nice to see the Republic Pictures name came up again.

Mahalia Belo (The Long Song) directed The End We Start From, working from a screenplay by Alice Birch, who is a writer and story editor on the HBO series Succession. Birch is also showrunner on the Dead Ringers series based on the 1988 David Cronenberg film. Described as a “feminist survival story”, The End We Start From will tell the following story: As London is submerged below floodwaters, a woman gives birth to her first child, Z. Days later, she and her baby are forced to leave their home in search of safety. They head north through a newly dangerous country seeking refuge from place to place. The story traces fear and wonder as the baby grows, thriving and content against all the odds.

Hunter’s novel is said to be “a lyrical vision of the strangeness and beauty of new motherhood, and a tale of endurance in the face of ungovernable change.”

Anton and BBC Film are co-financing the film version of The End We Start From, with SunnyMarch’s Leah Clarke and Adam Ackland, Hera Pictures’ Liza Marshall, and C2’s Jason Cloth and Dave Caplan producing alongside Sophie Hunter and Amy Jackson. Comer, Cumberbatch, and Strong serve as executive producers with Anton’s Sébastien Raybaud and Cecile Gaget and BBC Film’s Eva Yates. SunnyMarch is Cumberbatch’s production company, and Anton has a minority share in it.

Clarke, Marshall, and Ackland previously described The End We Start From as “a story about motherhood, separation, social and environmental upheaval, and those primal instincts in us which draw moments of joy and inspiration out of the chaos.”

The End We Start From sounds interesting to me, so I look forward to seeing how it has turned out. Are you interested in this movie? Are you glad it has landed North American distribution, and have you read the Megan Hunter novel? Let us know by leaving a comment below.