DEADLINE – Young Woman and the Sea, based on the book by Glenn Stout, which chronicles the the daring journey of the first woman to ever swim across the English Channel, has been set up at Paramount Pictures by producer Jerry Bruckheimer and he has tapped his Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales writer to adapt. Jeff Nathanson, who also scripted the cat-and-mouse Catch Me If You Can, is adapting the book and Lily James (Cinderella) will star as Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle who in 1926 captured world attention when she swam across the 21 mile Channel — an incredible feat for anyone, let alone a teen.
The daughter of a German butcher from Manhattan, Ederle was a competitive swimmer, an Olympic athlete who won Gold in the 1924 Games when she decided to attempt crossing the Channel. She undertook the feat after first swimming 22 miles from Battery Park in New York to Sandy Hook, NJ in a record that stood for 81 years.
When she set her mind to crossing the English Channel, she contracted with two newspapers and sold her story, thereby financing her quest. There was actually a race among women who would be first to cross as only five men had done so before.
She and her sister, Meg, constructed a two-piece swimsuit — unheard of in the 1920s where skirt lengths were below the knee and ordinary swimsuits looked like summer dresses — and used candle wax to seal her goggles to make them leak-proof.
After struggling against waves, winds and some of the most treacherous waters anywhere, the relentless Ederle overcame all odds and finally completed her journey. The moment she reached shore, she rocketed to worldwide celebrity status and was known as “Trudy of America.” But her triumph was much more crossing of the Channel because she shattered centuries of female stereotypes and opened doors for generations of women to come.