According to Deadline, big time producers Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald have acquired the rights to Jon Robin Baitz’ stage play Other Desert Cities, which the playwright will pen and co-produce alongside the two.
Other Desert Cities is Baitz’ latest play, having opened at New York’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater back in January. It tells the story of an elderly Hollywood couple who once had a friendship with Ronald and Nancy Reagan, and, after retiring to Palm Springs, their reality TV producer and novelist daughter fights through her writer’s block and pens a tell-all memoir about the Reagan family secrets.
Parkes and MacDonald have had experience producing a play-to-screen adaption, with their involvement in Tim Burton‘s Sweeney Todd — as well as their nods on producing both the film and play adaptations of Catch Me If You Can — sticking out. It’s hard to determine if they’re a good producing match for Other Desert Cities, considering that they’re known for jumping from genre to genre for each project; they produced the American version of The Ring, the film adaptation of The Kite Runner, and are currently wrapping production on Men in Black III.
The producing duo are currently looking for studio involvement on the project. Hence, a release date is unknown.
Are you excited to see Other Desert Cities make its way to the big screen?