“Lovelace” has played at both Sundance and Berlin already this year, and it didn’t take The Weinstein Company long to snap up the distribution rights to the Amanda Seyfried-starring film (but we’re still waiting for a release date). That’s a pretty good outcome for directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, and you can fairly confidently predict that it will easily outgross their previous feature, the James Franco starring “Howl,” when it eventually makes its way into theaters. But even before it does, the pair have lined up their next project, and it’s “The Girl Who Conned the Ivy League.”
The film’s based on a 2009 article from Rolling Stone magazine about a high school dropout who created a fake ID and managed to con her way into both Harvard and Columbia, as well as becoming the target of a nationwide manhunt. Back in 2010 McG was lined up to direct the project with Amanda Seyfried suggested as a potential star, and actually it looks like in the intervening three years not a lot has changed.
Seyfried’s still attached to play the lead role of Esther Reed, so it might not be the biggest leap to imagine that she enjoyed her experience working on “Lovelace” and helped her directors land the gig. The project is also still being produced by McG’s Wonderland Sound and Vision banner, with the “This Means War” director probably too busy directing his untitled Luc Besson-produced thriller, and the pilot for a new “Romeo and Juliet” inspired TV show, “Venice.” Chris Shafer and Paul Vicknair have penned the script for this one, and production is now expected to get underway later this year. [Variety]