Hilary Swank to play ALS-stricken woman in 'You're Not You'

If Hilary Swank's characters have a common thread, it would be resilience in the face of adversity. That's what won her both her Oscars, for 1999's Boys Don't Cry and 2004's Million Dollar Baby. She favors true-to-life stories (Conviction, Amelia, Boys Don't Cry), and she's not so much into happy endings--her characters' fates include dying in a plane crash, becoming paraplegic and
requesting assisted suicide, and being murdered. It appears that her next project will have a few of those elements. She will play an ALS-stricken woman in You're Not You, which is based on the well-received novel by Michelle Wildgen. Swank's character is a sophisticated former chef who now can barely move her fingers. An aimless college student becomes her caretaker, and in the process the young woman redirects her life and learns a few lessons from the woman. Then the husband of the disabled woman has an affair and she kicks him out, revving up the stakes of the tale.

I would say that it's a challenge to make a project where the main character can barely move, but John Hawkes' performance in The Sessions has already proved that belief wrong. French success The Intouchables, about the relationship between a paralyzed man and his caretaker, has also shown these stories can resonate with audiences. Finally, the focus on female relationships dovetails with Hollywood's heightened focus on this piece of the puzzle, thanks to a string of hits with female-centered plotlines. I imagine Swank's character is a lot nicer than the one in The Devil Wears Prada, but that movie, at least, proves that a workplace growth experience between an older woman and a younger woman is viable at the box office.

I admire Swank for being so choosy about the movies she appears in. There are plenty of movies about 20-somethings trying to figure out their lives and seek personal growth, but most of them are romances set in urban areas with the women already in swank jobs (and "Girls," its innovative and less glamorous counterpart, also deserves a mention). You're Not You delves into more serious territory with its depiction of a serious disease. That makes a lot of concerns look trivial in comparison.

Although the project has been in development for years (the book was published in 2006), production will finally begin this November. One big casting decision has yet to be made: the college student. Shana Feste (Country Strong) and Jordan Roberts (Dolphin Tale) worked on the script, and George C. Wolfe (Nights in Rodanthe) is directing. Most tellingly, Alcon Entertainment, which brought tearjerker and feel-good movie The Blind Side to the big screen, is producing. With shooting beginning this fall, You're Not You will likely hit screens sometime in 2014.