Variety is reporting that James Mangold will follow up his Logan triumph this year by directing the currently-untitled adaptation of Jeffrey Toobin’s best-selling Patty Hearst biography American Heiress. Elle Fanning (The Neon Demon, Beguiled) will play the infamous newspaper heiress in the Patty Hearst movie. Hearst was kidnapped by the revolutionary Symbionese Liberation Army only to re-emerge as as a member of the terrorist group.
First announced in 2015, with Jennifer Lawrence mooted as a possible star, the script was written by biopic masters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (The People vs. OJ Simpson, Ed Wood, Man on the Moon) alongside Mangold. Nina Jacobsen and Brad Simpson of Colorforce will produce alongside Mangold.
Back in September, a rival project titled American Woman was announced, with Downsizing‘s Hong Chau in talks to play the woman who took care of kidnapped newspaper heiress Hearst. Chau would play Jenny Shimada, “a 25-year-old former radical on the run for an act of violence against the American government who agrees to care for three younger fugitives delivered to her by an individual from her former life.” Hearst is one of the fugitives and is now a celebrity after becoming one of the revolutionaries. American Woman is being produced by Killer Films with Semi Chellas (Mad Men producer) writing and directing.
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