Chris O'Dowd Asks Can You Ever Forgive Me? Melissa McCarthy Takes Over The Lead In Can You Ever Forgive Me?
The Diary Of A Teenage Girl's Marielle Heller took over the director's chair around the same time that McCarthy boarded the film, and she'll work from a script by original shot-caller Nicole Holofcener, who wrote it with Jeff Whitty.
McCarthy stars in the adaptation of Lee Israel's memoir, which chronicled how she went from profiling the likes of Katherine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead and Estee Lauder in the 1970s and 80s to finding doors slammed in her face because she'd fallen out of step with current tastes. So she turns her art form to deception, fabricating and then stealing famous letters from library archives abetted by her loyal friend Jack (Grant).
The cast also includes Jane Curtin, Dolly Wells, Anna Deavere Smith and Jennifer Westfeldt. "I'm overjoyed to be starting principal photography on this film, with this fantastic group of collaborators. Working with Melissa, Richard E. Grant and the rest of our tremendous cast, Searchlight and Anne Carey and all my wonderful producers is a dream come true," says Heller. "Now, more than ever, it is imperative we tell the stories of women and all people who have gone unnoticed by society. I'm honoured to be helming this very special film." There's no news yet on when the film will be released.