First it appeared on the Black List, then it attracted a director, then casting rumors, and now, most importantly, a production studio. Lionsgate is in “early talks,” according to The Hollywood Reporter, to pick up Rodham, a bio pic about a young Hillary Clinton in her days as a lawyer on the House Judiciary Committee to Impeach President Richard Nixon.
The script for Rodham, penned by Young Il Kim, was fourth on Hollywood’s 2012 The Black List, a list, put together by studio executives, of scripts they didn’t greenlight but liked quite a lot. While it has a somewhat ominous name and is technically a list of scripts that have not at the time of printing succeeded as movies, getting on the Black List is actually pretty good for a script. It gives it a little publicity and in many cases a better chance of actually getting made. In the case of Rodham, it only took another four months for the film to attract a director, James Ponsoldt (The Spectacular Now).
Since then, Ponsoldt says he’s been fortunate to have a lot of great actors interested in the project. Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Chastain, Reese Witherspoon, and Amanda Seyfried and Carey Mulligan have all been mentioned in connection with Rodham, so it’s clear that filmmakers have some pretty amazing options.
The Hollywood Reporter, however, warns that, at least according to their sources, the “early” part of “early talks” is pretty relevant here. Things could go either way, and it’s too soon to tell whether Lionsgate will actually pull the trigger yet.
(via The Hollywood Reporter.)
