While many actors have successfully gone behind the camera to take on successful directing careers in recent years (Angelina Jolie, Ben Affleck, Joel Edgerton, etc), none of them had the kind of pedigree Bryce Dallas Howard does. Now, Variety is reporting that the daughter of Oscar-winning director Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, the untitled Han Solo movie) will take on her own first feature directing assignment adapting “Silver Linings Playbook” author Matthew Quick‘s 2010 YA novel, Sorta Like a Rock Star.
Here’s the official book synopsis: “Amber Appleton lives in a bus. Ever since her mom’s boyfriend kicked them out, Amber, her mom, and her totally loyal dog, Bobby Big Boy (aka Thrice B) have been camped out in the back of Hello Yellow (the school bus her mom drives). But Amber, the self-proclaimed princess of hope and girl of unyielding optimism, refuses to sweat the bad stuff. Instead, she focuses on bettering the lives of her alcoholic mother and her quirky circle of friends: a glass-ceiling-breaking single mother raising a son diagnosed with autism; Father Chee and The Korean Divas for Christ (soul-singing ESL students); a nihilist octogenarian; a video-game-playing gang of outcasts; and a haiku-writing war vet. But then a fatal tragedy threatens Amber’s optimism—and her way of life. Can Amber continue to be the princess of hope?”
Howard, who has headlined smash hits like The Help and Jurassic World, has previously helmed several short films and an M-80 music video starring Lily Collins.
Veteran British screenwriter Ol Parker (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) will pen the script for Sorta Like a Rock Star, while Lee Stollman, Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen will produce. The project was originally set up at Fox Searchlight, but is currently without a distributor.
Howard will next be seen reprising her role as Claire Dearing in 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
