Elle And Dakota Fanning’s WWII Sisters Pic ‘The Nightingale’ To Hit Theaters This Christmas

Sony has dated Melanie Laurent’s feature adaptation of Kristin Hannah’s international bestseller The Nightingale for December 25, 2020.

With the Christmas debut of Greta Gerwig’s PG-rated Little Women last year, Sony saw a multitude of women flock to that movie, which grossed more than $203 million worldwide and earned six Oscar noms, winning one for Costume Design.

Real-life sisters Elle and Dakota Fanning will play on-screen sisters in the coming-of-age story, set on the eve of World War II, and their struggle to survive and resist the German occupation of France. The story was inspired by the courageous women of the French Resistance who helped downed Allied airmen escape Nazi-occupied territory and hid Jewish children.

The Nightingale has been published in 45 languages, and went on to sell 3.5 million copies in the U.S. alone and became a No. 1 New York Times Bestseller for a total of 114 weeks on the list.

TriStar EVP Nicole Brown, who leads the division, is overseeing the project with TriStar VP Production Shary Shirazi. Dana Stevens wrote the screenplay for The Nightingale. Elizabeth Cantillon will produce through her production company The Cantillon Company.

The project reteams Laurent with Elle Fanning after the duo worked on the 2018 movie Galveston together.

Christmas Day falls on a Friday this year, and The Nightingale will join such movies as Paramount/Skydance’s The Tomorrow War, 20th Century Studios/Disney’s The Last Duel, Universal’s News of the World, Warner Bros’ untitled Tom & Jerry movie, and DreamWorks Animation’s The Croods 2.