Sovereign buys film rights to Being a Beast

Sovereign Films has acquired global film rights to "extraordinary" true story Being a Beast by Charles Foster, published just this week by Profile.

Foster, a barrister, veterinarian, Fellow of Oxford University and father of six, takes an "intimate, visceral and completely radical" journey exploring the life of animals in order to better understand their world and also ours. For six weeks, Foster ate earthworms and lived as a badger, then tore open bin bags when living as an urban fox in London, and was later hunted by a bloodhound as a deer. His experiences include life as an otter and even as a swift.

"This truly personal story contains wonderful moments of humour and joy, but also provides profound lessons for all of us who share life on this precious planet", a spokesperson for Sovereign Films said.

Donald Rosenfeld, president of Sovereign Films, described the book as "a contemporary masterpiece", saying: "Charles Foster's great vision of the animal world is deeply compelling, utterly complex and totally unique. This will be our most challenging film to date: a project that confronts vital and fascinating questions about nature and the necessity for human beings to become proper stewards of the environment."

Foster said: "I am enormously excited that Sovereign Films will be taking Being a Beast from the woods, moorlands, rivers and skies and onto the big screen. Sovereign has a wonderful record of translating ideas, images and sensations into resonant and allusive film, and it’s a tremendous privilege to be working with them on this strange, wild project – a project ultimately about what it means to be a human, joyously and painfully enmeshed in the natural world."