Sony Pictures Classics has picked up British director Stephen Frears' Tamara Drewe for the U.S. and Latin America.

According to Variety, Sony Classics beat a handful of other bids for the live-action adaptation of Posy Simmonds' graphic novel of the same name.

Up-and-coming Brit starlet Gemma Arterton will play Drewe, a young newspaper columnist who returns to the country village of her youth and stirs up dark passions among the locals.

Also cast are Dominic Cooper, Roger Allam, Luke Evans, Bill Camp and Tamsin Greig.

Simmonds' graphic novel, a collation of comicstrips published in U.K. newspaper the Guardian, is a modern reimagining of Thomas Hardy's classic novel "Far From the Madding Crowd." Moira Buffini has adapted the script.

Lensing begins Sept. 21 on location in the U.K. and at Pinewood Studios.

Tamara Drewe was released October 8th, 2010 and stars Gemma Arterton, Dominic Cooper, Luke Evans, Tamsin Greig, Roger Allam, Bill Camp, Zahra Ahmadi, Jessica Barden. The film is directed by Stephen Frears.