American moviegoers who caught Lionsgate’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever during the holiday season of 2024 will likely remember Molly Belle Wright as Beth Bradley, the film’s grounded young narrator holding her own in an ensemble that included Judy Greer, Pete Holmes, and Lauren Graham. The Lionsgate release, directed by Dallas Jenkins and based on Barbara Robinson’s beloved 1972 novel, opened across more than 3,000 screens in November of that year and earned generally positive reviews. Wright’s performance as Beth, the observant, quietly funny girl at the center of the Herdman family chaos, was widely noted. Now she is stepping into her most demanding role yet, and the project is generating considerable attention ahead of its imminent premiere overseas.
Sky has confirmed that Flavia, a Sky Original family adventure film, will premiere exclusively on Sky Cinema and the streaming service NOW in the United Kingdom on April 4. The film stars Wright in the title role of Flavia de Luce, an eleven-year-old with an encyclopedic knowledge of chemistry and a particular fascination with poisons, who discovers a dead body in the cucumber patch of her family’s crumbling ancestral estate one night in 1951 England, and decides that solving the crime is her responsibility. The story is adapted from the first novel in Alan Bradley’s internationally bestselling Flavia de Luce series, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, which has built a substantial and loyal readership in North America since its debut in 2009.
The film’s cast is built around a core of well-known British character actors. Martin Freeman, familiar to American audiences from the Hobbit trilogy and BBC’s Sherlock, plays Havilland de Luce, Flavia’s cold and secretive father, who complicates the investigation by confessing to the murder himself. Jonathan Pryce, recognized stateside from Game of Thrones and The Two Popes, and Toby Jones, a veteran of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and the Indiana Jones franchise, also appear. Annette Badland and Karan Gill round out the ensemble, with Ariella Glaser and Tallulah Conabeare playing Flavia’s older sisters Ophelia and Daphne.
The screenplay was written by Susan Coyne, whose American television credits include Daisy Jones and the Six. The director is Bharat Nalluri, whose previous work includes Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and The Man Who Invented Christmas. Production companies involved include Mystic Point Productions, The Mazur Kaplan Company, and Zephyr Films. Sky developed and co-financed the film. Principal photography took place on location in southern England during the autumn of 2024, across Hampshire, Berkshire, and Surrey, with Minley Manor in Hampshire serving as the de Luce family estate.
The plot follows Flavia as she sets out to clear her father’s name after his unexpected confession, applying her chemistry knowledge to the case and staying one step ahead of the local constabulary as well as the actual murderer, who has turned attention toward her. As the investigation deepens, the story widens to include long-held secrets about her father and, more significantly, her missing mother Harriet, described as a spy, whose history Flavia begins to uncover. Sky’s Head of Originals for Sky Cinema, Andrew Orr, described Wright as “a star in the making” in the studio’s official announcement.
Wright, who was born in Manchester and raised in Australia, has been building her screen career steadily over the past several years, with roles in Australian and international television before breaking through to American audiences with The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. She also appeared in Omaha, which premiered in dramatic competition at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where she later received the Special Jury Prize for Performance at the Hamptons International Film Festival. Her casting in Flavia was announced after Isla Gie, who had been originally attached to the title role, departed the project.
For American fans of the Alan Bradley books, or of the performers involved, Flavia does not yet have a confirmed US release date or American distribution deal in place. CAA Media Finance has been handling North American rights, and Elevation Pictures has secured the film for Canada, but no platform or theatrical release has been announced for US audiences as of this writing. The UK premiere on April 4 is the first confirmed date for the film anywhere, and further distribution news will presumably follow in the weeks ahead.
Check out the trailer below!
