As we head into summer it may be easy to fall into despair about how all that’s being made nowadays is a $100+ million tentpole, but we have a couple of stories below that should give you a little hope for the future.
Cutting his teeth as a character actor in everything from “Pleasantville,” “Seinfeld” and “Mad Men,” Danny Strong made the biggest impression on Hollywood with his script for the HBO U.S. 2000 Election miniseries, “Recount.” Now, the writer-actor will add another title and category to his IMDB page as THR reports Strong will make his directorial debut with a film based on Kenneth Slawensk’s “JD Salinger: A Life.” Titled “Salinger’s War,” the biopic will focus on the reclusive author during “his early days trying to establish his career in New York’s literary circle in the early 1940’s. After numerous rejections, he finally finds his voice writing about a character named Holden Caulfield. Right as his career is about to begin, WWII breaks out and Salinger goes off to fight. His experiences at war forever change him, and help him to finally find his voice as a writer.” The “Game Change” screenwriter optioned the biography “with his own money and wrote the script on spec.”
We were quite taken with the Jenny Slate-starring abortion comedy “Obvious Child” when we caught at Sundance so we’re glad to hear that the film’s director, Gillian Robespierre has already lined up her follow-up. Deadline reports Robespierre has found financial backing from Oddlot Entertainment for her next directorial outing, “an untitled divorce comedy…[that] centers on three women” in New York City.
