The Joy of Sex movie casts Colin Firth, Julianne Moore and Laura Linney
Sharon Maguire’s comedy about the 1970s sex manual has begun filming in the UK and already sold to Lionsgate, Wild Bunch and others.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
Sharon Maguire’s The Joy of Sex movie is officially in motion, with Deadline reporting that Colin Firth, Julianne Moore and Laura Linney will lead the cast of the comedy about the making of the famous 1970s sex guide.
The film began shooting in the UK this week, according to Deadline. Maguire, who directed Bridget Jones’s Diary and Bridget Jones’s Baby, is directing from a script she wrote with Lise Mayer.
Firth, an Oscar winner for The King’s Speech, will play Alex Comfort, the British science professor behind The Joy of Sex. Linney plays Comfort’s wife, Ruth, while Moore plays Jane, Ruth’s best friend, according to the film’s official synopsis cited by Deadline.
The cast also includes David Tennant, Jason Watkins and Vicky Krieps.
What is The Joy of Sex movie about?
The film follows the romantic triangle between Comfort, Ruth and Jane, a relationship that the synopsis says lasted 10 years in suburban North London and helped shape the book’s ideas and illustrations.
The real The Joy of Sex was published in 1972 and became a cultural flashpoint. Deadline reported that the manual sold more than 15 million copies worldwide and spent 70 weeks at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.
According to the synopsis, Comfort thought he was writing “an antidote to war.” The film frames the book as the product of a complicated home life, where the trio’s relationship became part of the creative spark behind its sexual advice and hand-drawn images.
Maguire said the book was forbidden in her Irish Catholic home during the 1970s, which made it all the more fascinating to her. “The irony is that the book was an unashamed sex guide for loving couples, yet it was created out of a somewhat tempestuous triangle,” she said, according to Deadline.
Who is producing and distributing the film?
The producers are Alison Owen and Debra Hayward of Monumental Films, Anand Tucker of Seven Stories Film & TV and Matthias Greving of Kinescope Pictures.
Executive producers include Deepak Nayar of Kintop Pictures, Colleen Woodcock of Seven Stories, Philip Von Alvensleben and Isabell Von Alvensleben of Alive Entertainment, Marie-Claire Benson and Emma Berkofsky of Lionsgate UK, and Embankment Films.
Deadline reported that the project drew buyer interest and has already pre-sold across the UK, 23 territories in continental Europe and Africa, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand.
- Lionsgate will distribute the film in the UK.
- Wild Bunch will handle German-speaking territories.
- Embankment Films is handling global sales.
- CAA Media Finance and WME Independent are co-representing domestic rights with Embankment.
Deadline also reported that DZ Bank is providing senior lending and Alive Entertainment is providing gap financing.
Firth is represented by Independent Talent in the UK and CAA in the U.S., according to Deadline. Moore is represented by WME and Entertainment 360, while Linney is represented by CAA and Lighthouse Management & Media.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.