After a long search, director Sam Mendes and Oprah Winfrey's production company have found a screenwriter to adapt Joseph O'Neill's "Netherland" for the screen.

They've tapped Christopher Hampton, the writer who managed to adapt Ian McEwan's "Atonement." Winfrey's company, Harpo Films, had bought the rights to the critically-acclaimed book, and it took a number of conversations to bring Hampton into the project.

Here's a quote from Hampton about the adaptation: "I don't know why Sam wanted me to do it, but I do know he feels that he has to make it. He told me there really isn't anybody else who could make this film, since he is both a film director and an expat cricket-lover living in New York."