Director Lisa Cholodenko’s latest film, and her biggest success to date, was the domestic drama with paternity issues The Kids Are All Right. Starring names like Mark Ruffalo, Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, and Josh Hutcherson, The Kids Are All Right was an ensemble acting piece, and essentially a small in scope character study, so it may come as some surprise that the newest project the direct has in the works sounds like it’s going to be pretty plot-heavy.
The Wrap reports that Cholodenko has signed on to make a political thriller called November Criminals. Set in Washington D.C., this Steve Knight- (Eastern Promises) penned script tells the story of a student who has to explore the underbelly of Washington society in order to investigate the death of a classmate. Those details, in conjunction with the film’s title, probably serve as a good indication that this story isn’t going to be a very kind representation of our current political system.
Cholodenko is set to make the project with Santa Monica-based production company Indian Paintbrush, who have really been on a tear lately as far as putting together deals with talented people goes. Not only do they have a two-year, first look deal with newly hot commodity Jeremy Renner and his people, but they also have deals with top indie filmmakers in Wes Anderson and Jason Reitman. It looks like you can now add Cholodenko to their stable of heavy-hitters.
Also on the filmmaker’s upcoming slate is an adaptation of the Tom Perrotta (“Election”) novel “The Abstinence Teacher,” which tells the story of a sex education teacher who comes into conflict with a conservative community. We’ll have to wait and see how her schedule plays out now that she has multiple projects on her plate. How to handle this embarrassment of riches?