Money for Nothing: A24 Channel James Ponsoldt for “I Want My MTV”

Originally set up at Sony with Brett Ratner possibly eyeing it as a directing gig, the A24 folks picked up the rights in turnaround and have offered I Want My MTV to extended family member (the distrib paired with him on The Spectacular Now and The End Of The Tour) James Ponsoldt to write, direct and produce. Fresh off the sci-fi Emma Watson, Tom Hanks and John Boyega starrer The Circle, and circling the Black List favorite Rodham, this will be will produced by VisionChaos Productions’ Eva Maria Daniels who executive produced a pair of Oren Moverman titles: Time Out of Mind and the upcoming, The Dinner.

Gist: Based on Rob Tannenbaum and Craig Marks’ book I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story Of The Music Video Revolution, this recounts the first ten years of the network and is being conceived as a “fun, immersive look” at the network’s rise to become a cornerstone of pop culture.

Worth Noting: Non-spoiler alert: the book concludes its history in 1992 when MTV first revealed the groundbreaking reality show The Real World, grunge music made its debut, and MTV broke away from its all-video format.

Do We Care?: Sort of like a lead off hitter in baseball, Ponsoldt has a proficient, steady, yearly film resume dating all the way back to his sophomore effort, Smashed.