Cameras are rolling on The Custom of the Country, a new adaptation of Edith Wharton’s 1913 novel led by Sydney Sweeney and Leo Woodall. The start-of-shoot announcement also confirms a notably large supporting cast, giving the film a much bigger shape than a two-star period romance. FilmInk’s casting report lists the newly announced names, while the earlier STUDIOCANAL announcement establishes Josie Rourke as writer-director and Sweeney as the film’s star and producer.
The production has not announced a release date yet. That makes the current news about the people making the movie and the point at which it has reached, not a promise that it will be in theaters soon.
Sydney Sweeney and Leo Woodall lead the adaptation
Sweeney plays Undine Spragg, the ambitious young woman at the center of Wharton’s story. Woodall co-stars, although the production has not publicly identified his character in the current announcement. The project reunites a rising pair of performers in a story about money, status, and the cost of trying to enter a world that was not built for you.
The film is being made as a period drama rather than a contemporary update. That choice matters because Undine’s social climbing is tied to the rules of early-20th-century New York society, where marriage, family connections, and appearances can open doors faster than talent or hard work. Rourke’s adaptation will have to make that pressure readable without turning the novel into a museum piece.
The supporting cast is unusually stacked
The newly announced ensemble includes Josh Finan, Louis Garrel, Matthew Goode, Rose Leslie, Martha Plimpton, Irène Jacob, Hugh Dancy, Ian Hart, James McArdle, Rosie Sheehy, Louisa Harland, Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́, Dominic West, and Miranda Richardson. The production has not yet assigned their characters in the public materials, so it is too early to map every actor onto Wharton’s original cast of families and rivals. is the current source for the expanded list.
