Focus Features has grabbed the whole kit and kaboodle; Peter Hedges will adapt, direct and produce the film adaptation from his third novel and for those who may have forgotten his roots, Hedges’ first claim to fame as the author of What’s Eating Gilbert Grape which he adapted for Lasse Hallström. Published last month, The Heights sounds like a grass is greener on the other side type of neighborly drama which Publisher’s Weekly calls it “a lot like Tom Perrotta minus the satire or Jonathan Tropper with less humor”. In a nutshell, this is set in Brooklyn Heights, focuses on Tim Welch and Kate Oliver and how their lives are turned upside down when a wealthy couple moves in next door. So we are looking at least five available parts, 30-40 demo, and I’m sure that Jennifer Connelly will be mentioned by casting agents in this domestic drama. If I had to place a wager on it, we should receive first tidbits of casting news towards the end of the year. Here are some spoilers from Publishers Weekly’s review of the tome…
Tim Welch and Kate Oliver are happily married, living the urban dream in Brooklyn Heights, until the wealthy and beautiful Anna Brody moves in nearby, forcing them to question if happiness is enough. Anna’s arrival coincides with the forced retirement of Tim’s father, a celebrated women’s basketball coach, due to a sexual scandal; a lucrative job for Kate; and the reappearance of Kate’s former love, now a television star. And while the entire neighborhood is fascinated with Anna, it’s Tim and Kate she pulls into her orbit—intent on taking Tim as a lover—causing the seams of their marriage to fray and forcing them into situations they never would have predicted for themselves, even if the reader isn’t exactly surprised at how things play out. The plot tends toward busy, but Hedges (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape) keeps it under control, his sympathetically real characters holding down the novel’s solid center.
Midway last year, Hedges signed onto Disney’s The Odd Life of Timothy Green. No clue as to where that project is headed.
