Dana Adam Shapiro Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Segregated Proms Are Getting More Play with Jennifer Aniston
Filed under: Drama », Deals », Scripts »
It looks like there's a push to reveal the lingering strings of segregation in Mississippi. From HotDocs, I shared word of Prom Night in Mississippi, a great documentary covering Morgan Freeman's attempt to stop the segregated proms in his hometown. Now The Hollywood Reporter posts that Screen Gems is getting ready for a similar account called Holler, which was written by Dana Adam Shapiro, and will be produced by Jennifer Aniston's Echo Films.Said to be based on true events, the film will follow a bi-racial student who heads back to his Mississippi hometown with his mother. He falls for a white girl, and is shocked when he learns that she can't be his prom date due to lingering segregation. "He soon finds himself the catalyst for change for not only the prom but for the school and entire town." I wonder if he calls up Freeman for help?
Shapiro is the director of the Oscar-nominated Murderball, as well as the environmental short My Biodegradable Heart, so this should mix the romance and drama with a decent amount of social conscience. (It could also have some quirk, if The Every Boy is any indication.) This probably won't kick any segregation-lovers into the 21st century, but at least it gets the story out there. In the meantime, you can check out Prom Night in Mississippi on HBO.
Murderball Helmer Turns to Fiction
Filed under: Comedy », Documentary », Drama », Deals », Paramount », Newsstand », Brad Pitt »
Things were pretty crazy for Dana Adam Shapiro last summer. Not only was Murderball,
his first directorial effort, finally going into national release after rocking festival nation-wide, but his debut
novel was also being unleashed on an unsuspecting public. (The book was published just two days before the movie went
into limited release - that must have been an intense week.) Entitled The
Every Boy, Shapiro's novel explores the life of a drowned 15-year-old, whose death "[leaves] behind a
mother who's a little obsessed with ant farms, a father devoted to his jellyfish and boxing, and five years' worth of
diary entries written on 2,600 pages of loose-leaf graph paper." The book tells the boy's story though his diaries
(he's very weird, but happy about it) and, though some reviewers found it a precious and cliched, Amy
Sedaris says it's "Profound, not precious", and "A magical, haunting, hilarious debut." Take
that, haters.Apparently someone at Paramount also liked the book, because (through Brad Pitt's Plan B) they've optioned the rights and hired Shapiro himself to write and direct the film. Man. It's one thing to have a crappy movie made out of your book when someone else does it, but when the whole thing is in your hands? Talk about pressure.
Jeremy Renner Wants To Be An Avenger
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Indie Roundup: 'Sweetgrass,' 'Clarkworld,' 'Broken Embraces'
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