Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence signs up for film version of SA author's debut novel

ADELAIDE author Hannah Kent is one step closer to Hollywood fame with Jennifer Lawrence now confirmed for the film adaptation of Burial Rites.

Author Hannah Kent at her parent's house in Aldgate.

ADELAIDE author Hannah Kent is one step closer to Hollywood fame and fortune with actress Jennifer Lawrence now confirmed for the film adaptation of her hugely successful debut novel Burial Rites.

Oscar winner Lawrence and her Hunger Gamesdirector Gary Ross are set to reunite for the project, which is currently being shopped to Hollywood studios by Hunger Games producer Allison Shearmur.

In August, The Advertiser reported Shearmur had optioned the exclusive film rights to the novel about Agnes Magnusdottir, the last woman to be executed in Iceland.

While Shearman is still looking for funding for the project, the addition of Lawrence and Ross, an Oscar nominated and BAFTA Award winning director, significantly increases the chances of the movie getting picked up by a major film studio.

Kent, 28, who is currently promoting the book in America, said she was excited to hear the news.

"I am absolutely thrilled that Jennifer Lawrence, Gary Ross and Allison Shearmur have teamed up to shop the possibility of a Burial Rites film to studios," she said.

More: How Burial Rites changed Hannah Kent's life

"To know that the adaptation of Agnes Magnusdottir's story will be in the hands of such accomplished and respected professionals is incredibly gratifying, and I look forward to seeing how this new project develops."

Published in April after an international bidding war netted Kent a $1 million-plus advance, the novel is a fictional recreation of the last weeks in the life of Magnusdottir, who was convicted of the bloody murder of her employer and former lover and beheaded in a remote part of Iceland in 1829.

Lawrence, who won the Best Actress Oscar this year for Silver Linings Playbook, would play Magnusdottir in the film adaptation.

The drama is rife with Academy Award potential, with Lawrence scoring her first Academy Award nomination at the age of 20 for starring in a similarly harsh film, Winter's Bone.

It could be some time before Burial Rites goes into pre-production however, with Ross first scheduled to direct Peter And The Starcatchers (a take on the Peter Pan legend) while Lawrence is finishing up work on the final two Hunger Games films.

The second film in the franchise, Catching Fire, is released next month.

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