Katie Jacobs To Make Feature Directorial Debut
Though talk quieted since last August when Sony announced they would be adapting Sheila Weller’s “Girls Like Us,” a book about the careers of musical artists Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell and Carole King, for the big screen, the project is heating back up. THR reports that John Sayles, Oscar-nominated writer of “Passion Fish” and “Lone Star,” has been hired to pen the adaptation. Additionally, first-time feature director Katie Jacobs, a producer and director on the hit Fox show “House,” will helm and produce the project, along with producers Lorenzo DiBonaventura, Amy Pascal and Elizabeth Cantillon, all bigwigs of Sony Pictures.
While Sayles has had an illustrious career directing films like “Eight Men Out,” “Matewan,” “The Return Of The Secaucus Seven” and other indie touchstones he’s no stranger to writing for others, having penned “The Spiderwick Chronicles” and tapped at one point to write “Jurassic Park IV.” But clearly this project is much more in line with his sensibilities and the story of these three women from childhood to stardom holds plenty of drama to go around. And of course, Sayles is no stranger to the music world having made the indie blues drama “Honeydripper” as well as some videos for Bruce Springsteen back in the day (including “Born In The U.S.A.”).
Though the studio didn’t find the female writer they’d hoped for, they need to have discovered a talent in Jacobs, as this is an overwhelming project for a feature debut. No film this big has been made about three female rock personalities, so the stakes are high to get it right — not to mention the logistics of buying all the rights to their music. Maybe this will be the “women can rock” movie that was expected from last year’s banal “The Runaways.” Even though it might be a while before we hear news again, we’re waiting with bated breath to hear casting decisions for these three iconic and lovely women. Check out the synopsis of the book that serves as the source material below:
The epic story of three generational icons, this triple biography from author and Glamour senior editor Weller (Dancing at Ciro’s) examines the careers of singer-songwriters Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon, whose success reflected, enervated and shaped the feminist movement that grew up with them. After short sketches of their early years, Weller begins in earnest with the 1960s, switching off among the women as their public lives begin. A time of extremes, the 60s found folk music and feminist cultures just beginning to define themselves, while the buttoned-down mainstream was still treating unwed pregnant women, in Mitchell’s terms, like you murdered somebody (thus the big, traditional wedding thrown for King, pregnant by songwriting partner Gerry Goffin, in 1959). Pioneering success in the music business led inevitably to similar roles in women’s movement, but Weller doesn’t overlook the content of their songs and the effect they have on a generation of women facing a lot more choice, but with no one to guide them. Taking readers in-depth through the late 80s, Weller brings the story up to date with a short but satisfying roundup. A must-read for any fan of these artists, this bio will prove an absorbing, eye-opening tour of rock (and American) history for anyone who’s appreciated a female musician in the past thirty years.
–Catherine Scott
