'All the Light We Cannot See'
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After selling more than 15 million copies worldwide, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr will get an onscreen adaptation. Stranger Things producer Shawn Levy has taken on the project with a Netflix Original Limited Series. The WWII Pulitzer-winning novel is set to come out this year, and it includes veteran Hollywood actors, such as Mark Ruffalo (Avengers: Endgame) and Hugh Laurie (House). If you were riveted by the story of a blind girl trying to reunite with her father through radio signals forging an unlikely friendship with a young Nazi recruit that has expertise in radio technology, then here is everything you need to know about the limited series.
Editor's Note: This article was updated on November 3.
All The Light We Cannot See
DramaHistoryWarThe story of Marie-Laure, a blind French teenager, and Werner, a German soldier, whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.
Release Date November 2, 2023 Cast Aria Mia Loberti , Mark Ruffalo , Hugh Laurie , Louis Hofmann , Lars Eidinger , Andrea Deck , Nell Sutton Seasons 1 CreatorWhen Is 'All the Light We Cannot See' Coming Out?
With four hour-long episodes in total, All the Light We Cannot See premiered on November 2, 2023, nearly 10 years after the best-selling novel was published.
Where Will You Be Able to Watch 'All the Light We Cannot See'?
Since it's a Netflix original, the only way you'll be able to watch All the Light We Cannot See is on Netflix.
Watch the 'All the Light We Cannot See' Trailers
The official trailer for All the Light We Cannot See came out on April 18, giving fans of the book a first glance into the difficulties that Werner and Marie-Laure face in their everyday lives during WWII. With no dialogue and a lot of Debussy, the trailer shows Marie-Laure trying to communicate with her father via radio signals, but in reality, the person listening to her encoded message is none other than a Nazi recruit. Although the two may be on opposing sides of the war, they share hope for humanity. There are also flashbacks to Marie-Laure as a child, connecting with her father. Those scenes help to set the tone for the loneliness that both the protagonist and her father are feeling while they are forced to be apart during the war. As she awaits the next time she'll get the chance to reunite with her father, Marie-Laure must take of herself and her uncle, who is still overcoming PTSD from WWI.
During their TUDUM global fan event in Brazil, Netflix released a new teaser for All the Light We Cannot See that sheds more light on the connection between our central characters as well.
On September 7, we got a behind-the-scenes sneak peek video for All the Light We Cannot See, featuring members of the cast and crew.
The full trailer for All the Light We Cannot See was released by Netflix on October 3, 2023.
A series of featurettes were released on Netflix's Behind the Streams YouTube channels talking about how Aria Mia Loberti was cast as well as the process of adapting the best-selling novel. You can watch them below.
Who's In the 'All the Light We Cannot See' Cast?
CloseThe limited series stars Aria Mia Loberti, a Penn State PhD student who will be acting for the first time as Marie-Laure in the adaptation. Loberti was selected for the role after Levy opened a worldwide casting call for low-vision actresses. Since the character in the series loses her eyesight at the age of 6, the director wanted to authentically cast a blind actor for the part. Many self-tapes later, Levy found the right fit for the lead role, and in an interview with Collider, he revealed how Loberti wound up being cast in the lead role:
Anyone could send in an audition — sighted actors, unsighted actors, low vision, non-actors — and I got this audition from a nonactor. Her name was Aria, and she is a Fulbright scholar, a Ph.D. student in Rhetoric. This is not only her first part, it was her first audition. I knew there might be something special there, and with every Zoom, with every callback, that gut feeling was confirmed."
Dark alum Louis Hoffman plays Werner, a brilliant teenager recruited by the German army to use radio technology in order to track down any illegal broadcasts. Mark Ruffalo is set to portray Marie-Laure's father, Daniel LeBlanc, who is a locksmith at the Museum of Natural History in Paris. Hugh Laurie is Etienne LeBlanc, Marie-Laurie's uncle and WWI hero suffering from PTSD. Another cast member with a pivotal role in this adaptation is Lars Eidinger (Clouds of Sils Maria), who plays Sergeant Major Reinhold von Rumpel, a ruthless and terminally-ill Nazi officer in search of a diamond that is known to give eternal life. Other notable cast members include Nell Sutton as young Marie-Laure, Lucas Herzog as young Werner, Marion Bailey (The Crown) as Madame Manec, Luna Wedler as Jutta Pfennig, Ed Skrein (Deadpool) as Herr Siedler, Corin Silva (Rogue Heroes) as Frank Volkheimer, Milo Quinton (Masters of the Air) as Frederick, Felix Kammerer (All Quiet on the Western Front) as Schmidt, Andrea Deck (Homeland) as Sandrina, Richard Sammel (Inglourious Basterds) as Dr. Hauptman, Rosie Hilal as Frau Elena, and Bernd Hölscher as Bastian.
What Is the Plot of 'All the Light We Cannot See'?
Here is the official synopsis of the adaptation, provided by Netflix:
"Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, All The Light We Cannot See is a groundbreaking limited series that follows the story of Marie-Laure, a blind French girl and her father, Daniel LeBlanc, who flee German-occupied Paris with a legendary diamond to keep it from falling into the hands of the Nazis. Relentlessly pursued by a cruel Gestapo officer who seeks to possess the stone for his own selfish means, Marie-Laure and Daniel soon find refuge in St. Malo, where they take up residence with a reclusive uncle who transmits clandestine radio broadcasts as part of the resistance. Yet here in this once-idyllic seaside city, Marie-Laure’s path also collides inexorably with the unlikeliest of kindred spirits: Werner, a brilliant teenager enlisted by Hitler’s regime to track down illegal broadcasts, who instead shares a secret connection to Marie-Laure as well as her faith in humanity and the possibility of hope."
In an interview with Collider, Levy talked about how the series addresses the atrocities done by the Nazis:
"This is hardly an apologist work. Obviously, the book is not a Holocaust story, but it is a World War II story, and the reality of what the Germans did in that time is abhorrent and appalling, and the fact that we’re even talking about or hearing about a resurgence of that ideology is f—ing grotesque. So definitely, our show is committed to showing the grotesquery of that mindset, but it’s also really kind of zooming in on this one character and this one girl and this one boy and how their destinies intersect.”
Who's Making 'All the Light We Cannot See'?
As previously mentioned, Shawn Levy is the director of All the Light We Cannot See. After working on previous credits, such as the Night at the Museum franchise and Free Guy, Levy read Anthony Doerr's novel and was captivated by it. Yet, the project had already been signed off for a feature film at the time. After the film's production was stalled, the director was quick to take on the adaptation, proposing to make a limited series instead. With the help of his production team at 21 Laps Entertainment, the series came to fruition. This is Levy's first epic project, and according to his interview with Vanity Fair, exploring this genre was already in the books for him:
“I’ve made a lot of movies, but I’ve never made something on this grand cinematic scale and historic setting [that is also] a straight-up character-rooted drama. I’ve always wanted to, and I always felt that I had something to say in that genre and tone. Frankly, it was worth the multiyear wait to do it.”
Dan Levine is the executive producer of the series, and he will be reuniting with Levy after working on Free Guy together. Peaky Blinders' creator Steven Knight is responsible for the script. He is also credited for creating and writing other series such as Apple TV + original See, Hulu's version of Great Expectations, and BBC's Rogue Heroes. Nine-time Academy Award-nominated composer James Newton Howard (News of the World) is behind the musical score for the series. Tobias A. Schliessler who worked with Levy on The Adam Project is serving as the cinematographer on the series. Dean Zimmerman, who has worked with Levy on all of his films since Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, will be the editor. Levy wanted the series to feel as cinematic as possible, hence why he assembled such an esteemed creative team, telling Collider's Steve Weintraub:
"I shot all the episodes because I wanted to make this a four-hour film. And if you look at the people who were my creative team: James Newton Howard, Tobias Schliessler, Dean Zimmerman as editor, the same assistant director and line producer who have done my last 10 movies, this is a feature film approach to a limited series and the visuals and emotional scale feel very much more cinematic than television series."
When and Where Did 'All the Light We Cannot See' Film?
The adaptation to the screen was shot in Budapest, Villefranche-de-Rouergue, and Saint-Malo between March and July 2022. Since the series was filmed in a country that is bordering Ukraine, Levy ultimately cast Ukranian refugees as extras. In an interview with Collider, Levy talked about the emotional experience:
“We’re in the neighboring country to Ukraine, and we’re filming scenes of the exodus of refugees out of Paris when the Germans invaded. Some of the extras playing refugees marching west were Ukrainian refugees who had marched west to Hungary, where we were filming. So that was a mirroring of real life that was heartbreaking and kind of just took our breath away on those days.”
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