Likely destined to be one of the most gripping, suspenseful and visually arresting movies of 2022 is the coming-of-age murder mystery WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING. While it is rare that anyone could be so sure of a film’s quality so far in advance, the talent involved with this upcoming drama — including its top-notch cast, brilliant director, its source material and the celebrated pop star writing a song for the soundtrack — gives us a good feeling.
So, who is leading the WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING cast, who is directing, what is it based on and who is behind its anticipated theme song? We shall answer all of those questions and more in this guide to one of the year’s most exciting releases — starting with when it will be released.
Where The Crawdads Sing Opens July 2022
WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING was initially given a June 2022 release date. However, the date eventually was pushed back a few weeks and the drama is now set to hit theatres on Friday, July 15, 2022.
The film will be distributed by Sony Pictures and produced by Hello Sunshine and 3000 Pictures. The latter is a label owned by Sony that was more recently launched to specialize in features based on literature and WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING is the first title in its repertoire.
Based On The Best-Selling Novel
WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING follows a young woman named Catherine “Kya” Clark, who is otherwise known by locals as the “Marsh Girl,” having lived on her own in the swamps of North Carolina since her parents abandoned her when she was just a child in the early 1950s. Shortly after she attempts to reintegrate herself into society, the now grown-up Kya is forced to go on the run again when a man she was once romantically involved with attacks her and is later found dead, making her the prime suspect.
The gripping story is based on the novel of the same name, which is also the fiction debut of Delia Owens. “Where The Crawdads Sing” was first published in 2018 and went on to top the New York Times Fiction Best Sellers list in both 2019 and 2020.
Daisy Edgar-Jones Leads The Cast
Leading the WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING cast as the resilient Kya Clark is Daisy Edgar-Jones. The British-born actor began to really take Hollywood by storm following her Golden Globe-nominated performance in 2020’s romantic miniseries “Normal People” and her stunning work in the acclaimed horror-satire FRESH from 2022 — both of which were distributed by Hulu.
Playing Kya’s younger self is Jojo Regina, who is also known for Biblical TV drama “The Chosen" and is joined on the supporting cast by Taylor John Smith as Tate Walker — a former love interest who also teaches Kya to read and write — and Harris Dickinson as star football player Chase Andrews — her ex-boyfriend whose murder drives the story. The cast also includes Garret Dillahunt, Ahna O’Reilly, Academy AwardⓇ nominee David Strathairn, Michael Hyatt and Sterling Macer Jr.
Taylor Swift’s Original Song
Many of the people excited to see WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING are not just fans of the book it is based on, but are also fans of Taylor Swift. The Grammy-winning artist wrote a song – aptly titled “Carolina” – directly inspired by the story.
The singer-songwriter described herself as a fan of the original novel when she announced in an Instagram post in March 2022 that she’d written the “haunting” original track. In addition to doing some acting in her day, the singer-songwriter previously contributed to the soundtracks for HANNAH MONTANA: THE MOVIE with “Crazier,” THE HUNGER GAMES with “Safe and Sound” and the cinematic adaptation of CATS — also her most recent acting effort — with “Beautiful Ghosts.”
Produced By Reese Witherspoon
Another famous fan of “Where the Crawdads Sing” is Reese Witherspoon, who is producing the film adaptation. Just a month after it was released in August 2018, the book was selected for the Oscar winner’s Hello Sunshine Book Club and, the following December, she excitedly announced in a statement that her production company — also called Hello Sunshine — would be involved in bringing the story to the big screen.
Witherspoon is, of course, best known for starring in acclaimed movies like WALK THE LINE and hit TV shows like THE MORNING SHOW, but she has also been a force from behind the camera for many years. In fact, the Apple TV+ drama is one of the many series she has executive produced and some of her most notable big screen producing credits include 2014’s GONE GIRL — also based on a bestselling mystery novel — and an upcoming live-action take on the PETER PAN character, Tinker Bell.
Olivia Newman Directs Crawdads
At the helm of the transition from page to screen for “Where The Crawdads Sing” is director Olivia Newman, who is making her second feature-length effort with this new film, which is also her first theatrically released feature. She debuted with 2018’s Netflix original sports drama FIRST MATCH — which was also based on her own 2010 short — then went on to direct episodes of TV shows like “Chicago Fire” and “FBI” and is now working on a film about Roe v. Wade.
The screenplay for WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING was penned by Lucy Alibar, who previously received an Oscar nomination for adapting her own stage play into the 2012 film BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD — another story about one resilient girl’s quest for survival in unforgiving terrain - with director Benh Zeitlin. She also wrote and appeared in the Amazon Prime original dramedy TROOP ZERO, which was directed by Bert and Bertie, in 2019.
Typically, a safe way to determine if a film is going to be worth checking out is the talent involved. Well, the suspenseful story and beautiful, backwoods aesthetic of WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING already had me marking July 15, 2022, on my calendar. However, knowing that it is directed by a talented filmmaker like Olivia Newman, penned by an acclaimed writer like Lucy Alibar, produced by a Hollywood heavy like Reese Witherspoon and led by a stunning actor like Daisy Edgar-Jones is more to enough to convince me that we are really in for something worth singing about.
WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING opens July 15
