Maggie Smith Will Lead Film Adaptation of One-Woman Play A GERMAN LIFE

Dame Maggie Smith will star in the upcoming film adaptation of "A German Life," a one-woman play from "Dangerous Liaisons" and "Atonement" screenwriter/playwright Christopher Hampton.

The film follows the life of Brunhilde Pomsel, who served as secretary to the Nazi Joseph Goebbels, according to Variety. It is based on a series of interviews Pomsel gave when she was 103. Smith originated the role on the West End in 2019; now, she will take the story to the screen.

Jonathan Kent, a prominent director of plays and opera, will make his feature film debut on the adaptation. He directed the West End production, which ran for five weeks.

The play was supposed to open on Broadway as its next step; instead, due to COVID-19, the team decided to make the jump to the screen.

"What with COVID, Maggie decided that she didn't really want to go back and do it again on stage, which was a great shame because it meant that an enormous number of people hadn't seen it and her great performance," Hampton said. "What I've been doing is writing it as a screenplay about this woman in her retirement home in 2013 talking about her life. The film script was more difficult to write than the stage play. Sometimes she looks out the window and sees characters, but otherwise, it's all just her through the course of the day talking about her memories."

Maggie Smith, most famous to American audiences as Professor Minerva McGonagall from the "Harry Potter" series and Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham from "Downton Abbey," has had quite the career onstage. Her Broadway credits include "Lettice and Lovage," "Night and Day," "Private Lives," and "New Faces of 1956." On the West End, she's starred in the original production of "A German Life" and "Share My Lettuce."

Photo Credit: Maggie Smith in "A German Life" on the West End.