Director Sam Mendes has asked playwright and screenwriter Christopher Hampton (Atonement) to adapt Joseph O'Neill's Netherland for the screen, the Guardian reported. Movie rights to the novel are owned by Oprah Winfrey's company, Harpo Films.
"It is a beautifully written book and I quail at the idea of adapting it," said Hampton. "This is a very difficult project, I know that. When Sam first asked me, I said it was too difficult and that I could not do it. But Sam was very persistent and quite eloquent too. . . . I don't know why Sam wanted me to do it, but I do know he feels that he has to make it. He told me there really isn't anybody else who could make this film, since he is both a film director and an expat cricket-lover living in New York."