Had things gone differently, Nicole Holofcener, who has criminally not made a feature since 2013’s “Enough Said,” would have underway or have possibly even completed “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” starring Julianne Moore and Chris O’Dowd. Unfortunately, Moore wound up leaving over creative differences, and not much was heard about the project since last year. But an A-list comedienne is bringing it back to life.
In what marks a slight gear shift, at least as far as most of her big screen roles go, Melissa McCarthy has signed up to star in the movie, which will now be directed by “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” helmer Marielle Heller. Retaining the script by Holofcener, the film will adapt Lee Israel’s memoir of the same name, in which she turns to writing and selling counterfeit letters by dead authors and celebrities in order to make ends meet. Here’s the book synopsis:
Before turning to the criminal life, running a onewoman forgery scam out of an Upper West Side studio shared with her tortoiseshell cat, and dodging the FBI, Lee Israel enjoyed a celebrated reputation as an author. When her writing career suddenly took a turn for the worse, she conceived of the astonishing literary scheme that fooled even many of the experts. Forging hundreds of letters from such collectible luminaries as Dorothy Parker, Noël Coward, and Lillian Hellman — and recreating their autographs with a flourish — Israel sold her “memorabilia” to dealers across the country, producing a collection of pitch-perfect imitations virtually indistinguishable from the voices of their real-life counterparts. Exquisitely written, with reproductions of her marvelous forgeries, Can You Ever Forgive Me? is Israel’s delightful, hilarious memoir of a brilliant and audacious literary crime caper.
Heller has quite a few projects on her plate at the moment including “Kolma” starring Daisy Ridley, and “The Cast Against The 8.” Thus, not a big surprise that ‘Forgive’ won’t start shooting until early next year. [Variety]