Helena Bonham Carter, Freddie Highmore bite for Toast

Helena Bonham Carter and Freddie Highmore have signed on for the film adaptation of Toast, adapted from Nigel Slater’s lauded memoir. The story is about the famed food writer’s childhood and adolescence in the English Midlands in the 1960s, set to the songs of Dusty Springfield.

Carter will play Slater’s stepmother, and Highmore will play Slater as a 15-year-old boy. The film will start shooting in June in the West Midlands.

Producers are are Ruby Films, Screen West Midlands and BBC Films. The Works International is handling international sales.

The project will be for TV in the UK but sold for theatrical internationally.

Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) is adapting the screenplay and SJ Clarkson (TV’s Life On Mars, Heroes) will direct.

Ruby’s Faye Ward produces, and funders are Screen West Midlands, Lipsync Post Production and the BBC. Executive producers are Ruby’s Alison Owen, Paul Trijbits and Nicole Finnan and Jamie Laurenson at the BBC.

Executive Producer Paul Trijbits of Ruby Films said: “Freddie and Helena were our dream choices for Toast - we’re so happy to bring the Ruby standards of quality casting to this wonderful coming of age story for a worldwide audience.”