Netflix shared a glimpse of its upcoming historical fiction mini-series All the Light We Cannot See today.
The show, directed by Montreal's Shawn Levy, is based on Anthony Doerr's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name.
The story follows Marie LeBlanc, a blind girl transmitting clandestine broadcasts during World War II, as she hides in St. Malo, France, while under pursuit by Nazi officers and making a unique connection with one German teen tasked with tracking her down.
Levy cast Aria Mia Loberti in the lead role and Nell Sutton as her younger self, noting the importance of both actors being legally blind.
"The question was always how do you represent a disability on screen in a way that feels authentic and equitable to people with that experience?" he said in a press release shared by Netflix. "The answer, of course, find someone who is actually blind or low vision."
Loberti, who was not an actor and had never even auditioned for a role before being cast in the show, responded to Netflix's global casting call for blind and visually impaired actors.
She's in good hands, joining a main cast rounded out by industry veterans Mark Ruffalo and Hugh Laurie, who portray Marie's father and uncle, respectively.
It's not the first time someone has tried to bring the story from page to screen, and Levy says he learned from their failures when he signed on to the project.
Many qualified producers and writers before me had tried to turn this book into a movie, but it didn't work out because there was too much story. There's such a rich tapestry of characters and events in the book, and telling that story in two hours was all but impossible. We didn't want to compress it into two hours, but we also wanted to avoid stretching it out into eight or nine. So I approached this series as if it were a four-hour film.
Watch the trailer for All the Light We Cannot See ahead of its November 2 premiere below.
The show, directed by Montreal's Shawn Levy, is based on Anthony Doerr's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name.
The story follows Marie LeBlanc, a blind girl transmitting clandestine broadcasts during World War II, as she hides in St. Malo, France, while under pursuit by Nazi officers and making a unique connection with one German teen tasked with tracking her down.
Levy cast Aria Mia Loberti in the lead role and Nell Sutton as her younger self, noting the importance of both actors being legally blind.
"The question was always how do you represent a disability on screen in a way that feels authentic and equitable to people with that experience?" he said in a press release shared by Netflix. "The answer, of course, find someone who is actually blind or low vision."
Loberti, who was not an actor and had never even auditioned for a role before being cast in the show, responded to Netflix's global casting call for blind and visually impaired actors.
She's in good hands, joining a main cast rounded out by industry veterans Mark Ruffalo and Hugh Laurie, who portray Marie's father and uncle, respectively.
It's not the first time someone has tried to bring the story from page to screen, and Levy says he learned from their failures when he signed on to the project.
Many qualified producers and writers before me had tried to turn this book into a movie, but it didn't work out because there was too much story. There's such a rich tapestry of characters and events in the book, and telling that story in two hours was all but impossible. We didn't want to compress it into two hours, but we also wanted to avoid stretching it out into eight or nine. So I approached this series as if it were a four-hour film.
Watch the trailer for All the Light We Cannot See ahead of its November 2 premiere below.
