When you’re hot, you’re hot, and there are few filmmakers right now burning up with the kind of fire that “Smashed” and “The Spectacular Now” director James Ponsoldt is currently getting. Thanks to successive Sundance hits, he’s been busy lining up a whole host of gigs including the YA adaptation “Pure,” a big screen version of author Matthew Quick‘s (“Silver Linings Playbook”) next effort “Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock,” as well as a job penning the musical “Pippin.” But this new project on his slate could well be the buzziest of them all.
Ponsoldt has been pencilled in to direct “Rodham,” the biopic of Hillary Clinton (the title is her maiden name), penned by Young Il Kim, whose script landed on the 2012 Black List in fourth place. The film would track the rise of Hillary from her student days in the world politics, and yes, it would involve a guy named Bill too. Here’s the synopsis:
During the height of the Watergate scandal, rising star Hillary Rodham is the youngest lawyer chosen for the House Judiciary Committee to Impeach Nixon, but she soon finds herself forced to choose between a destined path to the White House and her unresolved feelings for Bill Clinton, her former boyfriend who now teaches law in Arkansas.
Right now, the movie is in early stages and is wisely looking for the right someone to sign on to play the lead first, before taking it out to potential investors and whatnot. But it’s already an intriguing package, particularly as the rumors swirl about a possible 2016 run for Hillary. If that happens, you can imagine why those involved would want this one moving fast. [The Wrap]