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DGA Winner Carol Polakoff, ‘Exodus’ Producer Denise O’Dell to Adapt Alan Jolis’ ‘Speak Sunlight’ (EXCLUSIVE)
John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentCarol Polakoff, a two-time Directors Guild of America award winner, is teaming with “Exodus” producer Denise O’Dell to adapt to the big screen “Speak Sunlight,” American writer Alan Jolis’ much-loved memoir. Now in pre-production and scheduled to shoot from May 8, the high-profile title is produced by Madrid-based Babieka Films, most recently behind Netflix hit “The Paramedic,” and L.A.’s Viewfinder Pictures. “Speak Sunlight” (“La Voz del Sol”) marks the directorial debut of journalist-screenwriter Polakoff whose curriculum includes two DGA wins and three Daytime Emmy Awards nominations for “ABC Afterschool Specials.” Most recently, Polakoff produced Daniel Rosenberg’s 2020 Cannes Official Selection title “The Death of Cinema and My Father Too,” which won a Cannes Label for making the cut in Thierry Frémaux’s First Features category. To film in Spanish, with a smattering of French, “Speak Sunlight” is written by Polakoff with a Spanish version from Natxo López, a creator of top primetime series such as “Perdida” and “Unauthorised Living.” López also co-wrote the just-out Amazon Studios hit “Operation Black Tide,” the subject of a case study panel at Series Mania on March 23.A heartfelt coming of age tale set in Paris and majorly Pamplona in 1965, “Speak Sunlight” is based on the memoir of the same title by Jolis, who died aged just 46 in 2000. It drinks from his childhood memories as the son of posh but distant American parents in Paris who is really looked after by the family’s cook, Maruja, a force of nature, and her husband, Manolo, the butler. In 1965, they take Alanito off to Pamplona, where he awakes to a vivid sensual world and grows up emotionally.
