Emily Watson to Headline Dominic Cooke's Post-WWI Gorilla Drama John Daniel

Watson takes the role of Alyce Cunningham in John Daniel, the film Cooke is directing for Genesius Pictures. The two-time Academy and BAFTA Award nominee — whose credits include Breaking the Waves, Hamnet and Chernobyl — steps into a story set in the Cotswolds village of Uley in 1918, still raw from the losses of the First World War.

According to the plot synopsis, Alyce has built a solitary life behind a wall of wit and stoicism. That ends when her reckless nephew impulsively snatches a baby gorilla from the window of a London department store and dumps the animal on her, leaving her no choice but to take him in. She reluctantly names him John Daniel; he grows mischievous and endlessly curious, wins her over, and becomes a fixture of village life from the school classroom to the pub.

The screenplay comes from Alexi Kaye Campbell, who wrote Woman in Gold. Campbell drew on original home movie footage and photographs recorded by locals in Uley between 1918 and 1922, and the film is billed as the true story of an unlikely friendship between a fiercely independent Englishwoman and a baby gorilla.

Genesius Pictures is producing in association with Edward Film Company, with BAFTA nominee Debbie Gray — whose credits include Good Luck to You Leo Grande and Mrs Lowry & Son — producing. The movie is in pre-production now, with principal photography set to start in the U.K. in mid-2027.

John Daniel will pair motion capture with VFX to build a photorealistic gorilla. Axio World is handling the visual effects, led by Loris Mantello (Avengers: Infinity War, Prehistoric Planet, The Lion King) and Maoris Creantor (The Lion King, Fast & Furious 9, The Matrix Resurrections). In the story, fear and suspicion eventually threaten to drive the gorilla out, forcing Alyce to decide how far she will go to protect him.