Noah Baumbach (Greenberg) will direct The Emperor’s Children from his own script for Imagine Entertainment, reports The Wrap. Ron Howard, who was previously attached to direct, will produce with partner Brian Grazer.
Keira Knightley, Eric Bana and Richard Gere are attached to star. Filming on the dramedy would start this summer.
The film is based on Claire Messud’s 2006 best-selling novel, which is described as follows:
The Emperors Children is a dazzling, masterful novel about the intersections in the lives of three friends, now on the cusp of their thirties, making their wayand notin New York City.
There is beautiful, sophisticated Marina Thwaitean It girl finishing her first book; the daughter of Murray Thwaite, celebrated intellectual and journalistand her two closest friends from Brown, Danielle, a quietly appealing television producer, and Julius, a cash-strapped freelance critic. The delicious complications that arise among them become dangerous when Murrays nephew, Frederick Bootie Tubb, an idealistic college dropout determined to make his mark, comes to town. As the skies darken, it is Booties unexpected decisionsand their stunning, heartbreaking outcomethat will change each of their lives forever.
A richly drawn, brilliantly observed novel of fate and fortuneof innocence and experience, seduction and self-invention; of ambition, including literary ambition; of glamour, disaster, and promiseThe Emperors Children is a tour de force that brings to life a city, a generation, and the way we live in this moment.
