Though she's best known for her Oscar-nominated screenplay for Carol, Phyllis Nagy also wrote and directed a praised TV movie called Mrs. Harris. She's now taking her directorial talents to the big screen for a new thriller called The Vanished.
Nagy will also write the script for the film, based on Lena Mauger and Stephane Remael's non-fiction book, which chronicles the haunting true story of the disappearance of people in Japan every year. Nearly 100,000 Japanese vanish without a trace annually. Known as the johatsu, or the “evaporated,” they are often driven by feelings of shame and hopelessness, leaving behind failed careers, disappointed families or mounting debt.
"The stories and images of the johatsu that are woven through Lena Mauger and Stephane Remael’s remarkable book moved me profoundly," Nagy says in a statement. "Those who are disenfranchised, who have no voice, who are, in fact, wiped clean from the rolls of our collective society – these narratives, though specific to Japan, increasingly find their terrible parallels in all corners of the world. And these global connections and resonances draw me powerfully to this tale."
Nagy and South Korea's CJ Entertainment are developing the film, which will be set in Japan. Nagy is also at work on an adaptation of Patricia Cornwell's Postmortem, which she's also planning to direct.
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