Marc Webb To Direct Film THIS ABOVE ALL Based on Former Westboro Baptist Church Member Megan Phelps-Roper
Marc Webb (The Amazing Spider-Man, 500 Days of Summer) is set to direct a film called This Above All. What makes this movie interesting is that it will tell the true-life story of Megan Phelps-Roper, who is a former member of the Westboro Baptist Church, which was founded by her grandfather. As you know the church is known for their hate speak and vicious protests.
The story follows Phelps-Roper’s upbringing around Topeka, KS where they preached God’s power and damned those who sinned. The church has a long history of picketing the funerals of gay murder victims, those who died of AIDS, our fallen military, the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, and victims of mass shootings — including Aurora, CO, where thousands showed up to block them, and in Orlando, where a wall of people worked hard to block church signs from the sight lines of grieving mothers burying their children.
Phelps-Roper started protesting at the age of 5 with her mom, and she protested for 20 years. She became one of the most powerful voices on social media for Westboro, where she used both a picket sign and her Twitter handle to doggedly protest everything from cultural events to funerals, until her ongoing conversations with opponents over Twitter led her to question her belief system.
With her mind open to a different way of seeing the world, she and her younger sister made the difficult decision to leave the church — and be disowned by their family — in order to find a life governed by love. They moved to Los Angeles and found a Hasidic Jewish family who embraced them fully that started them on their way to inclusiveness, empathy, humanity and love.
Webb will direct from a script written by Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, Brooklyn). With a solid screenwriter and talented director, this should turn out to be a great film that tells a powerful story.
When talking about the project, Hornby said:
“I’m looking forward to working with the brilliant Marc Webb, CNÉ and with my friends Reese Witherspoon, Bruna Papandrea and River Road, with whom I enjoyed such a good relationship during the making of Wild.”
Megan Phelps-Roper, recently gave a Ted Talk to talk about her experience. She explained that her life "was framed as an epic spiritual battle between good and evil. The good was my church and its members and the evil was everyone else.” You can watch her Ted Talk below: