Emma Donoghue's Room set for silver screen

Shortlisted for the Man Booker, Orange and Commonwealth Prizes, Emma Donoghue's hugely successful novel Room is set for a big-screen adaptation with Irish director Lenny Abrahamson (Adam and Paul, Garage, What Richard Did) at the helm.

Currently wrapping the forthcoming Michael Fassbender-led Frank, Abrahamson spoke of his excitement for his new project.

"Room is an extraordinary novel," he says. "Deeply original, harrowing, full of moments of almost unbearable tension, but also - and this is what is so special about it - profoundly life-affirming. From the moment I read it I wanted to make it for the screen and so I am truly delighted to be working with Emma on the film adaptation."

Set to be produced by Element Pictures, Room finds Donoghue returning to her famous work on screenplay duty.

‘It wasn’t just Lenny’s award-winning, impeccably honest films that won me over, but a ten-page letter he sent me, describing with passionate intelligence his vision of how to translate my novel into cinema," says Donoghue. "As an Irish company with strong international relationships, Element has a track record of combining artistic integrity and commercial appeal, which gives me confidence that Room is going to be something very special."