Sylvain Neuvel’s novella The Test will be coming to Entertainment One Drama as a film under the eye of director Gavin Hood, and has two major names attached to star: John Boyega (Star Wars, Attack the Block) and Payman Maadi (A Separation, Westworld).
The Test is a thriller about an immigrant (to be played by Maadi) taking a citizen evaluation test and a brilliant behavioral psychologist (Boyega) who supervises said test. It is a contained story, making it somewhat easier film to shoot in the middle of a pandemic—and the script will written and directed by Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Ender’s Game).
Neuvel seems fairly pleased by this turn of events, if this tweet is anything to go by:
AAAHHHH!!!
Hot Package: John Boyega, Payman Maadi Star In Gavin Hood-Directed eOne Drama ‘The Test’ https://t.co/pJHSeFYLRJ via @Deadline— Sylvain Neuvel (@neuvel) September 18, 2020
Neuvel has published an impressive array of thrillers, including the forthcoming A History of What Comes Next, out in February 2021 from Tordotcom Publishing. It has been described as “a fast moving, darkly satirical look at 1940s rocketry with the amorality of progress, and the nature of violence.”
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The Test
The Test originally hit shelves in 2017, and was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Awards in the Science Fiction category. Here’s a brief synopsis:
Britain, the not-too-distant future.
Idir is sitting the British Citizenship Test.
He wants his family to belong.Twenty-five questions to determine their fate. Twenty-five chances to impress.
When the test takes an unexpected and tragic turn, Idir is handed the power of life and death.
How do you value a life when all you have is multiple choice?
