An Australian screenwriter, Tony McNamara, is behind the script for Poor Things, the latest Yorgos Lanthimos movie which has broken the $100-million-box-office milestone.
According to ABC, he didn’t anticipate the widespread appeal of “Poor Things,” despite his own admiration for the project.
As anticipation builds for the 2023 Academy Awards, “Poor Things” is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay among 10 other categories.
Ranked as the fourth-highest-grossing nominee for Best Picture, trailing behind “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer,” and “Killers of the Flower Moon,” McNamara notes the achievement is even more significant considering the film’s $35 million budget.
“Poor Things” marks McNamara’s second collaboration with director Yorgos Lanthimos, known for their previous work on the dark comedy “The Favourite”.
“I’d worked with Yorgos before, so I knew he’s brave,” McNamara said to ABC.
“He just wants to make something unique. I loved working with him and he was keen to do it again. But it was really Bella Baxter’s character [that drew me in].”
Adapted from Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel of the same name, Poor Things follows Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a fully grown woman born in Victorian London from a Frankenstein-esque experiment by oddball surgeon Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe).
Across the film, Bella learns to be human: To walk, talk and think, as well as discover the pleasures of living — from Portuguese tarts, to philosophy, to “furious jumping” (her term for sex).
McNamara’s themes such as coming-of-age and control are evident not only in “Poor Things” and “The Favourite” but also in his involvement in the Disney villain origin film “Cruella,” starring Emma Stone.
Source: ABC
