Diablo Cody is a bit of maverick around Hollywood circles so it shouldn't come to anyone's surprise that she's set to tackle her directorial debut on a project formerly titled "Lamb Of God" with an eclectic cast in tow, including Julianne Hough, Russell Brand, Octavia Spencer, Holly Hunter and Nick Offerman. There's now one more addition to the line up in the form of former "Last Comic Standing" finalist Sarah Colonna.
So, how did this little known actress/comedienne manage to score a role in the directorial debut of one of Hollywood's hottest screenwriters? Here's what we figure: Colonna is a regular panelist and full-time writer on E! Network's "Chelsea Lately" and Cody is married to one Dan Maurio who, coincidentally, works on… "Chelsea Lately." The two have also teamed together on Showtime series "The United States Of Tara."
Recently appearing on Marc Maron's WTF podcast, Cody described the film as "a weird story. It's about this woman, she's 21, she's young. And she grew up in a super fundamentalist, super religious community. No TV, no secular music, long skirt. And she gets in a plane crash and is horribly burned and goes through this grueling recovery and basically goes in front of her entire congregation and says she's renounced God and that no benevolent God would allow someone to suffer that much. And so she leaves the community and goes to Las Vegas to try and live a sinful life, as she perceives it."
She also added that Hough would be burnt on her "arms and legs and feet and a little of her face. It's not a gruesome thing to behold and she's covered for most of the movie. I think it's a really uplifting movie actually [opposed to 'Young Adult']. It's about, I mean I don't want to give everything away, but the overall theme of this movie is that people can transcend their damage and their scars and their pain and go on to be whole again."
Lensing on the project will get underway this spring. [Deadline]