The Summer Book: On the red carpet with Charlie McDowell, Emily Matthews and Robert Jones at London Film Festival 2024

A story of father, daughter and grandmother, The Summer Book stars Glenn Close, Anders Danielsen Lie and newcomer Emily Matthews in this nature-focused feature by Charlie McDowell. Following her mother’s death, Sophia spends a summer on an island off the Gulf of Finland alongside her grandmother and father. Writer Robert Jones adapted the film from Tove Jansson’s 1972 novel of the same name, describing the source material as “spare” with a lot of emotional depth that drew him into it. For Jones, the writing-to-filming process has been almost ten years, working with McDowell on several drafts when he came on board as a director.

McDowell is known for the romantic thriller The One I Love and has worked on several Netflix films including The Discovery and Windfall. He describes this latest project as a chance to get off technology screens and reconnect with nature. Premiering at the London Film Festival 2024, McDowell, Matthews and Jones attended The Summer Book’s carpet event.

The Upcoming caught up with the director to discuss lessons to take from the feature, the experience of filming in Finland and his plans after the London Film Festival. Matthews also chimed in with her take on her character Sophia, working with Close to create the grandmother and granddaughter dynamic, and her thoughts on debuting at the London Film Festival.

Finally, we shared a few words with Jones to discuss working with McDowell on crafting the film, watching Close and Matthews bring his script to life, and finally debuting this piece he started working on almost ten years ago.

Mae Trumata

The Summer Book does not have a release date yet.

Read more reviews from our London Film Festival coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the London Film Festival website here.