Sarah Siegel-Magness, one of the three Oscar-nominated producers of Lee Daniels‘ 2009 hit Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire, will be making her directorial debut with Long Time Gone. She’ll be working from a Karen McCullah screenplay — based on April Stevens‘ novel Angel, Angel — and will be producing the pic alongside Bobbi Sue Luther and Gary Magness.
And, most notably, Meg Ryan is currently in talks to star in the film. Ironically, with a film titled Little Black Train, Ryan is also in the works of stepping behind the camera for the first time. [Variety]
The “story follows a broken family which is healed when the girlfriend of the youngest son moves in and changes their lives forever.” To read more about the source material, head over to the novel’s Amazon page or check out the synopsis below.
In her engaging debut novel, a quirky study of a dysfunctional suburban family, Stevens deftly portrays people in extreme mental states who attempt to pull themselves and one another back from the abyss. After Augusta Iris kicks Gordie, her artist husband, out of the house over his extramarital affair, she spends weeks in bed, barely speaking, consumed by grief and suppressed anger. When her stoned-out teenage son, Henry, a high-school dropout who mows lawns, learns that his father is living with a lover, he builds a bizarre sculpture in Dad’s studio to work out his rage. Meanwhile, Henry’s asocial brother Mathew, a Harvard Ph.D. candidate in chemistry, has returned home to comfort Mom. A recluse and health-food fanatic, Mathew hides in his room to avoid Bette Mack, Henry’s feisty live-in girlfriend, who attempts to revive the comatose family with peppy advice and sassy critiques. Bette seduces Mathew, is caught, flees and then learns that she is pregnant by Henry, triggering a series of sharp confrontations and decisions that propel most of the main characters toward emotional maturity. Stevens uses her characters’ vivid dreams as well as Augusta’s interior monologues to perceptively explore familial conflicts. Her touch is assured, her ear for vernacular dialogue marvelously sharp. This is an auspicious debut.
What do you think about Ryan’s casting potential? Have you read the Stevens novel?