Miramax Loves Them Some Female Convicts

Take a good look at the woman on your right, because this is the real Toby Phalen Young, and I just wanted to make sure that we all got to see the real person before Hollywood gets a hold of her. Variety reports that Miramax has optioned the Wall Street Journal article, The Heart Has Its Reasons, for a feature film (you can read the full article over at WSJ). Kevin Helliker's article tells the story of Young, a 48-year-old mother of two who fell in love with a convicted murderer and wound up in prison herself.

In 2004, Young had created a program for counseling inmates by having them care for dogs. This is where she met the 27-year-old murderer, James Manard. At the age of 17, Manard participated in a carjacking that left one of the passengers fatally shot. Manard received life in prison and had little hope of getting out. As the two became closer, an escape plan formed; Young grabbed $42,000 from her retirement fund and smuggled Manard out of prison. The two were eventually located in a Honeymoon cabin in Tennessee (how romantic!), and now Manard is back in prison, and Young is facing felony charges.

It's one heck of a story and seems perfect for the big screen. Miramax has only just optioned the article (along with a few other literary properties), so it could be some time before anything close to a completed script is ready. One thing is for sure: I'm guessing that when it comes time to start casting Young, they are going to go with an actress that is -- how do I say this nicely -- just a teensy bit more 'photogenic.'