By Sarah Sluis
August: Osage Country, the Tony- and Pulitzer-winning Broadway play, will be a 2011 film produced and
distributed by The Weinstein Company. The prestigious drama already has actors' agents calling, smelling
Oscar material. A sort of "family reunion" story, Letts' play centers on an
Oklahoma family that finds itself under one roof after the
family patriarch goes missing. Featuring a pill-popping mother and her
three secretive daughters (you can rest assured these secrets are revealed), the play uses liberal doses of acid humor to
make its commentary on life in the Midwest. Harvey Weinstein, already an investor in the play, acquired the worldwide film rights and will oversee the project in a producer role. Of the four current theatrical producers, Jean Doumanian and Steve Traxler will produce, and Jeffrey Richards and Jerry Frankel will executive produce. Author Letts, forewarned of a possible deal, has already been working on the screenplay and plans to finish in a few months. Weinstein's currently filming another stage adaptation, Nine, a musical based on Fellini's 8 1/2 about a film director's struggles with his (nine?) relationships, including his wife, mistress, muse, agent, mother...
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