Katherine Heigl Wants to 'Escape' Polygamy
Filed under: Drama, Casting, Deals
I was beginning to think that Katherine Heigl was sliding into a comfortable future of typecast romcoms and fluff fare on the big screen, with the occasional dramatic television movie to mix things up -- sort of like the next-generation Sandra Bullock. But now she has added some meat to her plate. Variety reports that she will both produce and star in an adaptation of Escape, the memoir of Carolyn Jessop -- the woman who broke out of the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints) world and helped convict polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs (the man who so idiotically thinks that the more wives you have, the closer you get to heaven). At the age of 18, she had to marry a man 32 years older than her. With this man, she had eight children, suffered rape and abuse, and finally escaped the life and became the first woman to leave an FLDS life and gain full custody of her children.
Right now, there's no word on who will adapt the memoir, but maybe one of the Big Love folks will take this on. FLDS stories are all the rage these days.
So, what do you think? Can Heigl pull off the role?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-11-2008 @ 4:42PM
Gina said...
Oh good, I'm glad they're making a movie of this. I read the book and it's a very eye-opening and sobering story, and something more people should know about. I don't know much about Heigl's abilities beyond "27 Dresses" (I'm not a "Grey's" fan and haven't seen any of her other movies), but good luck to her!
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6-11-2008 @ 4:48PM
mr. Obsession said...
As bland as I find Ms. Heigl in every acting endeavor she's attempted, this is a ballsy move.
She's a Morman and I cannot imagine everyone at her church is going to be happy about their religion (albeit a radical offshoot) being thrown up on the silver screen. Polygamy was a tenant of mainstream LDS religious practices before the US government forced them to condemn it. And they HATE it when anyone brings it up.
So...cheers to Katie and whoever at Paradigm convinced her to give this project a look!
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6-11-2008 @ 4:57PM
unperrocafe said...
Not a chance. This is a classic overreach. She is not that good.
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6-11-2008 @ 6:18PM
Andy said...
A wonderful and talented actress and hopefully this will be a good vehicle for her.
Emmy Award winner, twice Golden Globe nominated - she is more than capable.
Brilliant in Grey's Anatomy, fantastic in Knocked Up and elevated the cliche 27 Dresses with an endearing performance.
Heigl is also no longer a mormon and has not been one for many years. Also she is producing the movie under her production company alongside several other pretty interesting projects.
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6-11-2008 @ 7:13PM
mr. Obsession said...
"Heigl is no longer a practicing Mormon..."
Katherine Heigl, for one, disagrees. Unless things have changed since January.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/14/AR2008011403061_pf.html
6-11-2008 @ 6:39PM
Randy said...
Is she going to break out of the Concertina and Razor wire and make it through the hired North Korean border guards and get across the river and so forth? ESCAPE WHAT? Are Catholics escaping too? A real escape was the Jews getting out of Hitler's Germany and the 430 FLDS children getting out of the hands of Rick Perry's Gestapo CPS. That is an escape.
Escapes in America makes for good fiction and name calling.
How about a true story on the capture of 430 children that is a real first in this country that was sent home by the Texas Supreme Court?
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6-11-2008 @ 7:15PM
mr. Obsession said...
"Escape what?"
Just a member of her family that was trying to force sex on her when she was under 18.
You're right...no big deal.
6-11-2008 @ 9:15PM
eugene said...
mr. Obesession,
It's all a matter of perspective. If you're the sort of person who thinks it's fine to force your underage daughter to be raped and abused by older an older man, that being 'married' off into a harem and became a baby factory is the best sort of life she could hope for... then yeah, you too would think little of what Carolyn did.
Let's all give a big round of applause to the people who realize religion isn't an excuse for abuse.
6-11-2008 @ 6:30PM
morphs said...
Nice to see some good ol' fashion religion bashing on Cinematical. Hey, lets go after the Christians next. They idiotically think that praying to a dead guy is going to help them. Silly Christians.
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6-11-2008 @ 10:06PM
thinkdeeper said...
If Katheryn hiegl is Mormon, then black is white, evil is good, and I have ocean front property in AZ. This women would have been ex-communicated by Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor etc... before she even stepped foot in the same church building as they did.
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6-12-2008 @ 10:40AM
mr. Obsession said...
Wow...a whole crew of brand new posters with uniform opinions. How clever and compelling.
6-13-2008 @ 2:39AM
Devynn said...
how many see this flopping or being downgraded to a lifetime movie b/c the producers see what we all see: that the fundementalists of the mormon religion are whack jobs just like every other fundementalist of ANY religion is. and since we all know that from the get go, it's not gonna sale any movie tickets, so let's just put this movie back where it belongs: the shelf. at least until they can come up with some compelling way to get us to watch it. i don't see this being shown much anywhere outside of Lifetime and or on DVD at someone's church.
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7-04-2008 @ 2:04AM
Leanne said...
I just got done reading the book.I would love the book to be made into a movie. I dont really care who plays the parts as long as they do it well. It will be a really big eye opener for alot of people.
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7-21-2008 @ 3:24AM
ccjustice said...
Okay I live in SLC...and I'm not mormon...but a lot of my friends are and people HAVE to realize that polygamy is very against mormon beliefs. So what that they used to practice it. I'm not any religion but people need to understand that mormons do not believe in polygamy. FLDS members are their own religion and there is no mormon that will agree with their behavior
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