Ron Howard to direct movie adaptation of 'Hillbilly Elegy'
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| Image from Fandango
By Darian Scalamoni
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It’s
often shocking just how quickly a best-selling novel can be picked up for
distribution rights for TV or the movies. It seems that a book that has sat
atop the New York Times bestseller list for the past 36 weeks titled Hillbilly Elegy has just been bought by
the legendary Ron Howard (A Beautiful
Mind, Rush) and intends to start development on a feature film, per Variety.
Hillbilly Elegy, written by J.D. Vance
follows the author in his times growing up in the Rust Belt and dealing with
everyday struggles of America’s white working class. Vance dealt with drug
addiction and economic issues before being supported by his grandmother and
finding himself within his admiration for education which helped him rise out
of poverty and do something with his life. The book is a coming-of-age story
for a man who seemed to have dealt with plenty of hardships in his life. He
later joined the Marine Corps, graduated from Ohio State University and then
later, Yale Law School before joining CNN as a political contributor. It sounds
like a great story to tell but Howard has been on a bit of a cold spell
recently with Inferno and In the Heart of the Sea being critical
failures. Having said that, the director has a hell of a resume with character
driven stories such as A Beautiful Mind,
Apollo 13, Cinderella Man and Rush,
just to name a few.
No
details yet on when the movie will shoot or who will star as Vance in the
adapted memoir but Howard has a busy schedule per usual so it could take a
while. He’s on as Executive Producer for the upcoming National Geographic
series, Genius, about Albert Einstein
that stars Geoffrey Rush. He also has production dates upcoming for two more
films, Seveneves and a biopic on
Zelda Fitzgerald starring Jennifer Lawrence simply titled, Zelda.
Are
you excited about this story being told? What about Ron Howard directing?
Comment below and let us know what you think!
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