Newell takes over from Sam Mendes on Ian McEwan adaptation.

Mike Newell is newly attached to direct StudioCanal-Neal Street Productions-BBC Films drama On Chesil Beach, Booker Prize-winning author Ian McEwan’s adaptation of his own novel of the same name.

Newell takes over from Sam Mendes who is busy directing the 23rd James Bond film, Skyfall. Mendes will still serve as a producer through Neal Street, which he runs with Pippa Harris.

Shortlisted for the Booker prize in 2007, McEwan’s acclaimed 1962-set novel is about a young couple whose relationship is challenged on the first night of their honeymoon at a Dorset hotel.

Newell regular Susie Figgis is casting the drama, which will shoot early summer 2012.

The director is currently on Number 9 Films-BBC Films’ Great Expectations, starring Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Jeremy Irvine and Holliday Grainger. Newell’s credits include Four Weddings and a Funeral, Donnie Brasco, and Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire.