Sydney Sweeney will star in the film adaptation of The Custom of the Country. The American actress will also produce the film, according to trade magazine Variety. Edith Wharton’s book was published in 1913.

Sweeney will play Undine Spragg, a young and ambitious woman from the American Midwest.

Spragg tries to find her way into New York’s upper echelons at the beginning of the twentieth century. Josie Rourke will direct.

According to Rourke, Sweeney is perfectly suited for the lead role. “It’s as if Wharton wrote the role with her in mind a century ago,” the filmmaker said in a statement.

Wharton’s novel is a critical portrayal of social ambition and status in New York at that time.

There were previously plans for a film adaptation by Sofia Coppola, starring Florence Pugh. That project fell through in 2020.

Sweeney, 28, is currently in theaters in The Housemaid, a 2022 film adaptation of Freida McFadden’s book of the same name.