Director of THE HELP to take on 1960's Drama PEACE LIKE A RIVER
I still have yet to see the Tate Taylor directed film The Help, but I've been hearing amazing things about it, and that it's one of the best movies of the year. The film's director is currently in talks to develop another period drama called Peace Like a River, an adaptation of the award winning novel written by Leif Enger. The movie is set up at DreamWorks and Warner Bros. Brad Pitt is also producing the project through his Plan B production company.
The story deals with some very powerful issues and focuses on themes such as Forgiveness and Miracles. It's "narrated by an asthmatic 11-year-old named Reuben Land, who lives with his eccentric family in 1962 Minnesota. When two young troublemakers break into the family home, Reuben’s 16-year-old brother guns them down and is convicted in the ensuing trial. When the brother escapes, Reuben, his sister and his widowed father criss-cross the Midwest to find him."
As great as this story sounds, this may not end up being Taylor's next project, he's currently looking through several other different options. Regardless of who makes this movie, it sounds like one of those good solid stories that needs to get a feature film adaptation.
Here's a description of the book:
Hailed as one of the year's top five novels by Time, and selected as one of the best books of the year by nearly all major newspapers, national bestseller Peace Like a River captured the hearts of a nation in need of comfort. "A rich mixture of adventure, tragedy, and healing," Peace Like a River is "a collage of legends from sources sacred and profane -- from the Old Testament to the Old West, from the Gospels to police dramas" (Ron Charles, The Christian Science Monitor). In "lyrical, openhearted prose" (Michael Glitz, The New York Post), Enger tells the story of eleven-year-old Reuben Land, an asthmatic boy who has reason to believe in miracles. Along with his sister and father, Reuben finds himself on a cross-country search for his outlaw older brother who has been controversially charged with murder. Their journey is touched by serendipity and the kindness of strangers, and its remarkable conclusion shows how family, love, and faith can stand up to the most terrifying of enemies, the most tragic of fates.