Three months ago, we learned that Terence Davies had already lined up his next project (and would thereby not be repeating the 11-year gap between his two most-recent narrative efforts, The House of Mirth and The Deep Blue Sea). Titled Sunset Song, the film is an adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibson’s 1932 novel, and we’ve just received our first bit of casting information: Peter Mullan and Agyness Deyn will play the two key roles. [Empire]

After giving a pair of aggressive, brute-force turns in Tyrannosaur and War Horse, Mullan‘s grizzled face is likely fresh in your memory, and he sounds like the perfect man to play a fatherly role described as “bruising.” Meanwhile, Deyn, who will be seen in Luis Prieto‘s Pusher remake, looks like she’ll be shouldering most of Sunset Song‘s narrative weight, as her character — Chris Guthrie, the “grieving daughter” — essentially comprises the entirety of Amazon‘s rundown of the novel’s synopsis.

It’s only good news, to my mind, that production on this one appears headed for a steady track. I was quite enamored by The Deep Blue Sea, and there’s little doubt that it presents Davies at his most formally assured, but I simply loathe the idea of having to wait another decade for his next narrative undertaking. Thankfully, though, with a distribution deal (courtesy of Fortissimo Films) already secured, and the producer presence of Bob Last (The House of Mirth, Sylvain Chomet‘s The Illusionist), I can’t imagine this one pushing too strongly against its forecasted 2013 completion.

Have you read Sunset Song? Is it a good match for Davies’s sensibilities?