Just over 80 years ago, a major historical find was uncovered in a field in England. As it turned out, sitting under the soil of Sutton Hoo, Suffolk for centuries was an incredibly-well preserved Anglo-Saxon burial site for a fallen king. After the initial discovery in 1939, it was excavated for over five decades. The tale of its uncovering was given a somewhat fictionalised account in John Preston’s 2007 novel The Dig – which has now been adapted into a starry Netflix film by director Simon Stone.
The screen version casts Ralph Fiennes as archaeologist Basil Brown who makes the discovery – though the site sits on the land of Carey Mulligan’s Edith Pretty. Here’s a very first look at the film, as seen in the new issue of Empire, with Fiennes on the dig site.
![The Dig – exclusive](https://images.bauerhosting.com/legacy/media/5f99/9593/489b/7959/bab2/3bf3/the-dig-excl.jpg?auto=format&w=1440&q=80)
“It’s about the unearthing of a lot of things,” producer Gaby Tana tells Empire on set. “It’s a deep excavation into people’s stories.” Read the full set report in The Suicide Squad issue, on sale Thursday 29 October and available to order online here.
![Empire – The Suicide Squad cover – December 2020](https://images.bauerhosting.com/legacy/media/5f92/f708/24ac/7413/1331/cf3d/empire-december-2020-cover.jpg?auto=format&w=1440&q=80)
Elsewhere, Stone’s film stars Lily James as archaeologist Peggy Preston, who – due to the 1939 setting – finds herself faced with misogynistic notions as a young woman in a male-dominated field. Elsewhere, the cast includes Johnny Flynn, Ben Chaplin, Monica Dolan, and Ken Stott. The Dig is expected to stream on Netflix in 2021.