Director Ron Howard's New Film HILLBILLY ELEGY Picked Up By Netflix
Director Ron Howard is set to direct a feature film adaptation of J.D. Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy, with The Shape Of Water co-writer Vanessa Taylor writing the script.
Netflix has jumped on board to produce the film and has given it a $45 million budget. There were a lot of other studios after this project, but Netflix beat them out because they are winning Hollywood right not.
The full title of the book is Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, and it centers around Vance growing up in the Rust Belt and gives a “personal analysis of the white underclass, race and privilege in America.”
Vance, raised poor among working-class “hillbillies,” explores his childhood and family struggles as they navigate drug addiction, and social and economic challenges. Supported by his larger-than-life grandmother, he developed a deep appreciation for education that laid the foundation for him to rise out of poverty and its cultural restraints.
That sounds like it will make for an inspirational story. It’s become a passion project for Howard and he will also produce the film through his Imagine Entertainment and his partner Brian Grazer is also on board to produce as well.
Howard recently directed Solo and is currently in post-production on a documentary he directed based on opera singer Luciano Pavarotti called Pavarotti.
What are your thoughts on this next film project that Howard is about to take on?