EXCLUSIVE: The Juno team of director Jason Reitman, screenwriter Diablo Cody, Mandate Pictures and the production company Mr. Mudd are teaming again on Young Adult with Charlize Theron starring. The film’s being produced by Cody, Mason Novick, Lianne Halfon and Russell Smith of John Malkovich’s Mr. Mudd banner. Mandate’s Nathan Kahane and Malkovich are exec producers. I’m told that Reitman has brought in Indian Paintbrush’s Steven Rales to possibly co-finance with Mandate and he will be an exec producer as well. Several studios are interested in making the picture, but it hasn’t crystallized yet. The plan is to get the film into production in New York on November 10 if all works out, with Reitman directing. Cody won an Oscar for her Juno script and Reitman was also nominated.
Theron plays a ghostwriter of young adult novels who plots to reclaim her identity. Her campaign involves going back and rekindling a relationship with her high school boyfriend — who’s freshly married, is a new father, and wants no part of her. While she works on her plan, the ghostwriter reengages with high school acquaintances and their experiences in trying to fulfill all those high school hopes and dreams that often get crushed by the realities of life.
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