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Alter Ego Author: Holofcener & Julianne Moore Forge Partnership over Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Somewhere in 2015-16, Oscar-winning actress Julianne Moore could fall on hard times. The actress is attached to take on the role of Lee Israel (this NYTimes piece paints the picture on an interesting career choice for the biographer in question) in Nicole Holofcener’s sixth feature film, Can You Ever Forgive Me? for Fox Searchlight. Anne Carey who previously executive produced Holofcener’s Friends with Money will produce. Holofcener is probably on the last drafts of the project and we can almost guarantee that muse Catherine Keener is being considered for a supporting player part.

Gist: Based on the 2008 memoir by Lee Israel, Israel was a respected biographer who fell on hard times and turned to counterfeiting the letters of deceased writers and celebrities (Humphrey Bogart, Ernest Hemingway and a laundry list of other greats) in order to pay her rent. When the forgeries started to raise suspicion, she turned to stealing the actual letters from library archives and sold them through an ex-con fence she met in a bar, while the FBI was closing in on the scam.

Worth Noting: Holofcener recently had directing gigs for Parks and Recreation, Togetherness and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Do We Care?: Several critics were partial to Enough Said, but this will serve as a “new page” of sorts for Holofcener with the embedded true story biographical elements and a much darker character than anything you might find in her filmography.

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).

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