The Moth Diaries

Screenterrier reported last year on the casting of Lily Cole in Mary Harron's up-coming feature film adaptation of Rachel Klein's cult vampire novel The Moth Diaries.

Now, 19 year old Dubliner, Sarah Bolger (represented in the UK by Hamilton Hodell) has landed the lead role in what may prove to be the next teenage vampire sensation.

Bolger, who appeared alongside Jonathan Rhys Meyers in The Tudors, will play a mentally ill adolescent who becomes obsessed with a fellow student played by Lily Cole, the English model, in the film adaptation of The Moth Diaries.

The cult vampire novel, written by Rachel Klein, tells the story of a 16-year-old American girl sent to an elite all-girl boarding school following her father’s suicide.

The girl, who Bolger is due to play and who has depression, psychosis and a personality disorder, becomes convinced that Ernessa (Lily Cole), a new girl at the school, is a vampire who is sucking on the blood of fellow boarders.

Bolger’s character, while nameless in the book, has been called ‘Rebecca’ for the film which Mary Harron, the director of American Psycho, will write and direct.

Sarah is best known for her roles in In America and The Tudors, the television series based on the reign of Henry VIII. She won the best supporting actress award at the IFTAs this year for her portrayal of Lady Mary Tudor and the Shooting Star award at the 2009 Berlin film festival.

The 19-year-old has starred in several successful children’s films including The Spiderwick Chronicles with Freddie Highmore and Stormbreaker with Alex Pettyfer. However The Moth Diaries will see her taking on a darker persona as she investigates the spate of deaths at her boarding school. Harron described it as a “chillingly atmospheric horror story”. She said that in her screenplay, she had tried to stay loyal to Klein’s take on the Gothic tradition and “girl-on-girl vampires”.

The film is an Irish-American co-production. It is now due to shoot in Montreal in late summer this year and post-production will be carried out in Ireland in the autumn.