VARIETY – Searchlight Pictures has acquired worldwide rights to Annapurna’s “Nightbitch,” with six-time Oscar-nominee Amy Adams set to star. Marielle Heller wrote and will direct the film adaptation of Rachel Yoder’s acclaimed debut novel.
The movie, described as a “darkly comic neo-horror,” is currently in pre-production, with a scheduled production start this September in Los Angeles. “Nightbitch” will stream as a Hulu Original in the U.S., with additional release plans to be announced.
According to the official logline, Adams stars in the project as a woman “thrown into the stay-at-home routine of raising a toddler in the suburbs, who slowly embraces the feral power deeply rooted in motherhood, as she becomes increasingly aware of the bizarre and undeniable signs that she may be turning into a canine.”
In addition to starring in the project, Adams — who will next be seen in “Disenchanted,” the long-awaited follow-up to Disney’s smash hit “Enchanted” — also produces alongside Stacy O’Neil, via their Bond Group production banner. Bond Group and Annapurna initially acquired the rights to develop Yoder’s novel into the screenplay with Heller, with Searchlight acquiring the rights to the movie in a competitive worldwide sale.
Continue reading Marielle Heller to Direct “Nightbitch”
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Marielle Heller to Direct “Nightbitch”
Hollywood actor will perform at Duke of York’s theatre, London, as Amanda Wingfield in one of Tennessee Williams’ most autobiographical plays.
The Hollywood star Amy Adams is to make her West End theatre debut in a revival of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. Adams, a six-time Oscar nominee, has been cast as the St Louis matriarch Amanda Wingfield in Williams’s “memory play” which is one of his most autobiographical works.
The Glass Menagerie will open at the Duke of York’s theatre in London next spring, directed by Jeremy Herrin who called the 1944 drama “one of the best plays ever written – and probably one of the hardest plays to do because it is so fragile and poetic”. Herrin hailed Adams as “a class act” and a versatile performer with the nuanced approach to bring out the interior life of Amanda, who Williams described as a woman “of great but confused vitality clinging frantically to another time and place”.
Adams, who started her career in dinner-theatre productions, has become one of America’s most sought-after actors. Her most recent Oscar nomination was for her portrayal of Lynne Cheney, the former second lady of the US, in the 2018 film Vice. “I am so honoured and excited to be a part of bringing The Glass Menagerie to the stage in the West End,” she said. “I have always felt a strong pull towards the work of Tennessee Williams and to this deeply personal story. I am so grateful to be working with the brilliant Jeremy Herrin and with all of the talented cast and creative team. I look forward to the shared experience of theatre.”
Herrin said he was delighted by the alacrity of Adams’ response to the offer of the play and that it was an opportunity for London “to welcome such a celebrated actress”. The Glass Menagerie was first performed in Chicago in 1944 and on Broadway in 1945 with Laurette Taylor as Amanda. The character has since been played by Jessica Tandy, Jessica Lange, Cherry Jones and Sally Field.
Two actors, Paul Hilton and Tom Glynn-Carney, have been cast in the role of Amanda’s son, Tom, the warehouse worker and aspiring poet who narrates the play. The pair will portray the character at different stages of his life, adding an extra layer to Williams’s subtle exploration of memory. There has become a “sort of received way” to stage the playwright’s work, said Herrin, who is directing a Williams play for the first time and admitted he has often been disappointed by productions of the American heavyweight’s classics. The director hopes that having two Toms on stage will provide a moving and mischievous way to see the play afresh.
Lizzie Annis and Victor Alli complete the cast for what will be the first show staged by Herrin’s new entertainment company, Second Half Productions. Last year, Herrin stepped down from Headlong theatre company, where he had been artistic director since 2013. Headlong’s outgoing executive director, Alan Stacey, rejoins Herrin at Second Half Productions, which has been co-founded with Rob O’Rahilly.
Herrin said that he is committed to diversifying creative teams and “inviting collaborators who maybe historically haven’t had the chance to work in commercial theatre”. The director acknowledged that he had been “really lucky” to be working during UK theatre’s pandemic crisis. The lockdowns have been “really punitive for a lot of people in our industry” he continued. “Lots of people who would have been entering the industry with confidence may well have been put off by what’s happened over the past year. I’m going to use the luck that I have, the good fortune to be making work, to bring other people into the industry and to be supportive.”
The Glass Menagerie begins previews at the Duke of York’s on 23 May, with tickets on sale from noon today. It is designed by Vicki Mortimer with lighting by Paule Constable and video design by Ash J Woodward.
Herrin is currently in rehearsals for The Mirror and the Light, the final part of Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy, which opens at the Gielgud theatre, London, later this month. Adams stars in a new film adaptation of the hit stage musical Dear Evan Hansen.
That’s a wrap on the long-awaited Disney sequel, Disenchanted, with director Adam Shankman taking to social media to confirm the news. The filmmaker shared a wholesome image of himself holding hands with lead actress Amy Adams, and also took the time to reveal that the movie will indeed arrive on Disney+ sometime in 2022.
Released back in 2007, the first Enchanted acts as both an homage and parody of the classic Disney movies and princesses of old. The story begins with Amy Adams’ Princess Giselle being banished from her kingdom by her lover’s evil stepmother. Transported into the real world, specifically New York City, Giselle must navigate her way through a reality that lacks singing animals and other such wonders in order to find a way to get home. Things become complicated however when Giselle meets a lawyer, Robert (Patrick Dempsey), and finds herself falling for him.
Several details have now been released regarding the Disney follow-up, with Disenchanted due to take place fifteen years after the first movie, with Giselle having moved to the suburb of Monroeville with Robert and their teenage daughter Morgan, where she must juggle the challenges that come with a new home and discover what happily ever after truly means to her and her new family.
However, Giselle, Robert, and Morgan’s new suburban life may not turn out to be as idyllic as they’d hoped, as the community is overseen by Malvina Monroe, who has nefarious intentions for the family. When problems arise, Giselle wishes that their lives were the perfect fairytale. The spell backfires, with Giselle rushing to save her family, and her homeland of the Kingdom of Andalasia before the clock strikes midnight.
The cast meanwhile will be comprised of several familiar faces from the first movie, with Amy Adams returning as Giselle, Patrick Dempsey as Giselle’s husband Robert, James Marsden as Prince Edward, and Frozen star Idina Menzel as Nancy Tremaine, who is now married to Prince Edward. New cast members include Maya Rudolph, who is set to play the villain, Malvina, with Oscar Nunez and Kolton Stewart also having now been added to the cast, with the latter playing Malvina’s son. Newcomer Gabriella Baldacchino will make her feature film debut in Disenchanted, starring in a pivotal role as Morgan, Robert’s daughter. Yvette Nicole Brown and Jayma Mays were previously announced, and while we now know that they will star as Rosaleen and Ruby respectively, it has not yet been confirmed whether they will also star as villains as previously theorized.
On the musical side, Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz are returning to write the movie’s songs, with Menken also set to compose the score. With production having now wrapped, it shouldn’t be too long before we get a better look at the sequel, and can judge whether the team have once again managed to capture the same magic. Disenchanted is scheduled to be released in the United States on an unspecified date in 2022, as a Disney+ exclusive movie.
Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal Win Rights to Memoir ‘Finding the Mother Tree’ With Adams to Star
Variety reports that production companies fronted by Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal have landed adaptive rights to scientist Suzanne Simard’s memoir “Finding the Mother Tree.”
In a competitive situation, Adams’ Bond Group Entertainment and Gyllenhaal’s Nine Stories scored the the book, published today via Knopf. The project is being developed by both companies with Adams set to star.
Recounting her groundbreaking and once-ridiculed research, the book is described as a dazzling scientific detective story about the woman who first discovered how trees communicate underground through an immense web of fungi. Simard’s work has been praised as having “planetary significance,” and is said to have influenced creative works including James Cameron’s “Avatar” (the Tree of Souls) and author Richard Powers.Adams and Bond Group co-founder Stacy O’Neil said the book “excited us with a narrative about the awe-invoking power of nature and the compelling parallels in Suzanne’s personal life. It forever transformed our views of the world and the interconnectivity of our environment. ‘Finding the Mother Tree’ is not only a deeply beautiful memoir about one woman’s impactful life, it’s also a call to action to protect, understand and connect with the natural world.”
Gyllenhaal and his Nine Stories partner Riva Marker called the project “part charming memoir, part crash course in forest ecology. And yet, it manages to be about the things that matter most: the ways we care for each other, fail each other and listen to each other. After the last year and a half, its lessons about motherhood, connection and the natural world are more timely than ever, and we are thrilled to partner with Amy, Stacy and their company, and Suzanne Simard to adapt this majestic story to film.”
Adams and O’Neil and Gyllenhaal and Marker will produce the project, with Noah Stahl overseeing for Nine Stories and Kate Clifford for Bond Group Entertainment. A distributor has not yet been set.
Disney Studios President of Production Sean Bailey made official Thursday an Enchanted sequel, Disenchanted, which will star Amy Adams and go straight to Disney+.
The 2007 live-action movie was a satire on Disney animated princess musicals, a fish-out-of water tale about a cartoon princess who is submerged in modern day New York City.
Bailey didn’t provide details about the project during his presentation at the Disney Investor Day. Adam Shankman is attached to direct; no word on who is penning the songs. The first movie was nominated for three Oscars in the Best Song category for Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz’s tunes “Happy Working Song,” “So Close” and “That’s How You Know..”
Amy Adams has joined the cast of Dear Evan Hansen, Universal’s adaptation of the Broadway musical.
Stephen Chbosky (Wonder) is directing the feature which has a script by Steven Levenson, who wrote the book for the stage musical. Music and lyrics are by Academy Award-winning duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who also worked on La La Land and The Greatest Showman.
Ben Platt, who originated the role and even won a Tony for it, is reprising the character of Evan Hansen, a socially awkward teen who gets caught up in a lie when he says he was best friends with a schoolmate who commits suicide. The act initially brings him closer to a crush and brings him attention but he must face repercussions when the truth surfaces.
Kaitlyn Dever is playing Zoe, the crush, while Amandla Stenberg has nabbed a part that expands upon the original stage role. Colton Ryan will play Connor, the teen who dies. Nik Dodani is also on the roll call.
Adams will play Cynthia Murphy, the mother of Dever and Ryan’s characters. The character kicks off the musical with a duet with Hansen’s mother’s with the song Anybody Have a Map?
Marc Platt, who produced La La Land, and Adam Siegel will produce for their Universal-based Marc Platt Productions.
Universal’s senior vp of production Sara Scott and director of development Lexi Barta are oversee production on behalf of the studio.
Adams has sung for her supper in several movies, Disney’s Enchanted and The Muppets, among them. The six-time Oscar nominee next stars in Netflix drama Hillbilly Elegy and the thriller The Woman in the Window.
Following a competitive auction, Annapurna Pictures has landed the rights to Rachel Yoder’s upcoming debut novel “Nightbitch” and will adapt the book as a feature film starring Amy Adams, the company announced on Thursday.
Yoder is set to write the script and will exec produce the project alongside Megan Ellison, Sue Naegle, and Sammy Scher for Annapurna with Adams and Stacy O’Neil producing through Bond Group Entertainment.
“Nightbitch” marks the fifth collaboration between Annapurna Pictures and Adams, who previously partnered on the multiple Oscar nominated films “The Master” and “American Hustle” as well as Oscar winning titles, “Her” and “Vice,” with Adams garnering nominations for her performances in “The Master,” American Hustle,” and “Vice.”
Exposing the absurd and feral truths of motherhood, “Nightbitch” is a darkly comedic telling of an unnamed woman and former artist, thrust into stay-at-home domesticity after the birth of her son, who becomes increasingly worried and convinced that she may be turning into a dog. The book will be published by Doubleday in Summer 2021.
Adams will next be seen in Ron Howard’s “Hillbilly Elegy” and Joe Wright’s “The Woman in the Window.”
Yoder is represented by CAA and Monika Woods of Triangle House Literary. Adams is represented by WME, Linden Entertainment, Narrative, and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.
Deadline first reported the news.
