Screenwriter Emma Forrest has been on our radar for a while. She featured on our list of “5 Screenwriters About To Hit The Big Time” largely due to the strength of her excellent script “Liars (A-E),” which focused on a woman on the verge of turning 30 who, after she’s dumped by her rock star boyfriend on election night, decides to travel to Obama’s inauguration with her younger best friend, stopping along the way to take back gifts she’d given all her ex-boyfriends. At one point, the film was set up with Richard Linklater directing and Kat Dennings and Rebecca Hall set to star but — blast you movie gods! — the project fell apart. The script was penned in three days following her break-up with Colin Farrell after a year-long relationship, and another piece of work inspired from that period in her life is now making its way to the big screen.
“Your Voice In My Head” is a soon-to-be-published memoir by the scribe, chronicling a very hard time in her life — yes, while she was dating Colin Farrell, he’s referred to as GH (Gypsy Husband) in the book — in which she battled bulimia, cutting, self-destructive behavior and survived a suicide attempt before finding help with a psychiatrist who acted as a life preserver as things were spinning out of control. So yeah, while she may have been with Farrell at the time, the memoir — described as a “modern-day fairy tale” — seems to be more focused on her road to recovery than with juicy details of their relationship. Deadline reports that Ruby Films, the production shingle behind Cary Fukunaga‘s upcoming “Jane Eyre” and “Tamara Drewe” has optioned the rights to the book though no other details (director, etc.) have yet been announced.
As for “Liars (A-E),” which we’d love to see get made, the rights are currently held by both Scott Rudin and Miramax with the former apparently trying to buy it back. Last we heard, Forrest was writing the teen movie “How Can You Do This To Me?” for Paramount, which is set to star “iCarly” star Miranda Cosgrove, but we haven’t heard much about that project recently. Check out the full synopsis from Amazon for “Your Voice In My Head” below:
Emma Forrest, a British journalist, was just twenty-two and living the fast life in New York City when she realized that her quirks had gone beyond eccentricity. In a cycle of loneliness, damaging relationships, and destructive behavior, she found herself in the chair of a slim, balding, and effortlessly optimistic psychiatrist—a man whose wisdom and humanity would wrench her from the dangerous tide after she tried to end her life. She was on the brink of drowning, but she was still working, still exploring, still writing, and she had also fallen deeply in love. One day, when Emma called to make an appointment with her psychiatrist, she found no one there. He had died, shockingly, at the age of fifty-three, leaving behind a young family. Reeling from the premature death of a man who had become her anchor after she turned up on his doorstep, she was adrift. And when her all-consuming romantic relationship also fell apart, Emma was forced to cling to the page for survival and regain her footing on her own terms. A modern-day fairy tale, Your Voice in My Head is a stunning memoir, clear-eyed and shot through with wit. In her unique voice, Emma Forrest explores the highs and lows of love and the heartbreak of loss.
