February 09, 2025
Michele C. Haddon/Bucks County Courier Times; USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
'Audrey's Children,' a biopic about the groundbreaking work of CHOP pediatric oncologist Dr. Audrey Evans, will be released in theaters March 28. Above, a photo of Evans and Jimmy Murray, co-founders of the first Ronald McDonald House, hangs inside the lobby of the Chestnut Street location in Philadelphia.
A biopic about the groundbreaking work of pediatric oncologist Dr. Audrey Evans at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is coming to theaters next month.
"Audrey's Children" will be released nationwide on Friday, March 28, after the U.S. distribution rights were acquired by Blue Harbor Entertainment, Variety reported. The film was directed by Ami Canaan Mann and stars "Game of Thrones" actress Natalie Dormer as Evans.
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The movie, based on a true story, is set in 1969 Philadelphia and follows British physician Evans, who is "newly recruited to a world-renowned children’s hospital and battles sexism, medical conventions, and the subterfuge of her peers to develop revolutionary treatments, purchase the first Ronald McDonald House for families of patients and, ultimately, impact the lives of millions of children around the world," according to the "Audrey's Children" website.
Dormer is joined in the cast by New Jersey-native and Bloomsburg University grad Jimmi Simpson, who is known for roles in "The Newsroom" and "House of Cards" and plays Evans' longtime colleague and late husband, Dr. Giulio D'Angio.
Clancy Brown, who was in "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Dexter: New Blood," will play Dr. C. Everett Koop, the former head of pediatric surgery at CHOP and later U.S. Surgeon General. At a time when few women were given opportunities in positions of leadership at hospitals, Koop recruited Evans to Philly in 1969, putting her in charge of the hospital's new Children's Cancer Center that launched a revolutionary treatment approach that has saved millions of lives.
The screenplay for "Audrey's Children" was written by Julia Fisher Farbman, who is also a producer on the movie. Farbman interviewed Evans in 2016 as part of her "Modern Hero" series on Amazon Prime. Evans spent years collaborating and supporting the movie, which was filmed in Philadelphia, but she died at the age of 97 two weeks into the start of physical production in 2022.
In the cancer community, Evans is known as the "Mother of Neuroblastoma" for her research that helped improve treatment options and survival rates of one of the most common forms of childhood cancer. Her Evans Staging System enabled care providers to make better choices about when and whether to treat young patients, many of them younger than 5 years old. After Evans implemented her staging system at CHOP in 1971, the approach was credited with increasing survival rates among neuroblastoma patients from about 10% to 50%.
Evans also was a leading advocate for a "total care" approach to cancer treatment, ensuring that patients' social and familial needs were an integral part of CHOP's program. This commitment led to the establishment of the first Ronald McDonald House in West Philadelphia in 1974, an initiative she spearheaded with support from the Philadelphia Eagles and McDonald's. The home provided lodging and other services to families who traveled away from their homes to get cancer treatment for their children at CHOP. The home became a model for hundreds of Ronald McDonald Houses around the world.
After serving as CHOP's Oncology chair for 20 years, Evans partially retired in 1989 and continued her work on neuroblastoma in the lab for another 20 years. She went on to co-found the St. James School in the Hunting Park neighborhood of North Philadelphia. The private, tuition-free Episcopal middle school aims to address inequities through education.
Over the years, Evans has received a number of awards and recognitions, including the Distinguished Career Award from the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and the William Osler Patient Oriented Research Award from the University of Pennsylvania. She also earned the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Advances in Neuroblastoma Research Association.
"Dr. Evans was a force of nature, determined and tenacious. And always with the well-being of children at the forefront of everything she did," Mann told Variety. "She’s a lodestar, really, of how to walk through the world. And when I learned about her journey, I thought, 'Yes, this is a story I need to help tell.'"
"Audrey’s Children" was produced with "passionate support" from the Ronald McDonald House Charities and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, producers told Variety.
Information on where to buy tickets to see "Audrey's Children" will become available on the film's website, according to an Instagram post. Fans can also book private screenings of the movie online.
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