The Housekeeper: Anthony Hopkins joins Helena Bonham Carter in drama inspired by Cornish classic

Stephen Price

Anthony Hopkins is set to star alongside Helena Bonham Carter in an evocative romance that fictionalises the inspiration behind Daphne du Maurier’s  beloved classic, ‘Rebecca’.

The highly-anticipated drama is set against the brooding landscape of Cornwall, focussing on Danni, the housekeeper at Manderville Hall, a grand historic house owned by the wealthy and widowed Lord Grenville-Whithers (Hopkins).

Variety writes: “When the young writer Daphne du Maurier arrives, Danni is drawn into a clandestine and intoxicating affair. For one, it is an all-consuming love; for the other, an awakening of long-suppressed desires.

“Their fragile secret threatens to unravel under the watchful gaze of Adelaide (Bonham Carter), Lord Grenville-Whithers’ calculating niece.”

BAFTA winner and Oscar nominee Helena Bonham Carter (“The Crown,” “One Life”), BAFTA and Golden Globe nominee Caitríona Balfe (“Belfast,” “Ford v Ferrari”), and fast-rising star Emma Laird (“The Brutalist,” “28 Years Later”) have joined show alongside the already announced two-time Oscar winner Anthony Hopkin (“The Father,” “The Silence of the Lambs”).

Previously attached stars Uma Thurman and Phoebe Dynevor are no longer appearing.

An initial statement from Embankment Films shared: “We are excited to announce Embankment Films launches global pre-sales with CAA Media Finance co-representing U.S. rights for “The Housekeeper” – Rose Tremain’s evocative romance that fictionalises the inspiration behind Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca.

“Helmed by award-winning director Richard Eyre (The Children Act, Notes on a Scandal, Iris), written by acclaimed prize-winning best-selling author Rose Tremain and based on her own short story and forthcoming novel, the movie is produced by Julia Taylor-Stanley and Kevin Loader.

“Set in the mystic, brooding and wild landscape of Cornwall, the rugged Atlantic foot of England, Danni, housekeeper at Manderville Hall, a grand and historic house owned by the wealthy and widowed Lord DeWithers (Anthony Hopkins), falls prey to the glance of a young and beautiful visitor, the novelist Daphne Du Maurier who begins to write her haunting masterpiece. For one, their affair is an all-consuming love, for the other an intoxicating realisation of her secret longings.

Embankment’s Hugo Grumbar says: “’Richard is a master storyteller, whose films elicit award-winning performances. Beyond the magnetism of its romance, “The Housekeeper” brims with inventive twists and turnsof desire and deceit, and mirrors today’s challenge to find purpose and identity.”

Richard Eyre says: “Rose Tremain’s story grapples with love, fear, fiction, desire, ambition, death, and legacy – perhaps epic, whilst providing us with the delicacy of most complex, nuanced characters, and unexpected shifts in audience sympathy. The cast and I hold in our palm a story as rich and turbulent as the landscape that it inhabits, with Manderville Hall holding secrets and emotional intrigue within its historic walls.”

Producer, Julia Taylor-Stanley, says: “Kevin and I are thrilled to be working with Richard and our wonderful cast to bring Rose’s evocative story to its global audience at the end of 2025”.