Amy Adams is set to star in Netflix’s adaptation of “Hilllbilly Elegy,” that Ron Howard is on board to direct, Variety has learned.
“Shape of Water” screenwriter Vanessa Taylor adapted the script with Brian Grazer, Howard and Karen Lunder producing for Imagine Entertainment. Julie Oh and J.D. Vance will exec produce.
Based on on the bestselling memoir by J.D. Vance, the pic is a modern exploration of the American Dream and follows three generations of an Appalachian family as told by its youngest member, a Yale Law student forced to return to his hometown.
Imagine has been developing the pic since 2017 when it acquired the rights. In January, Netflix boarded the project after winning a heated bidding war to finance the $45 million feature.
Adams had a busy 2018 starting with her role in the HBO limited series “Sharp Objects,” which earned her a Golden Globe nomination. She followed that up with her Oscar-nominated role as Lynn Cheney in the Dick Cheney biopic “Vice.”
She can be seen next in the adaptation of the New York Times best-seller “Woman in the Window,” which co-stars Julianne Moore and is directed by Joe Wright. She is repped by WME, Brillstein Entertainment, attorneys Jason Sloane and Harris Hartman and Narrative PR.
