Amblin Partners & Tate Taylor Reteam For Jean Smart Feature ‘Miss Macy’

Anthony D'Alessandro
·3 min read

Click here to read the full article.

EXCLUSIVE: Amblin Partners is reuniting with Tate Taylor, who directed the studio’s box office and award-lauded hits The Help and The Girl on the Train. The new feature project is Miss Macy and it’s based on the true story of Trisha Mitchell Coburn and her life after she meets her mentor “Miss Macy”. Three-time Emmy winner Jean Smart will star as Miss Macy and serve as EP. Taylor will direct and produce.

The pic tells the true story of a young girl who is plucked from her unhappy home life and set on a path for success by an eccentric woman who sees something special in her.

More from Deadline

Pulitzer Prize winner and Oscar nominee Beth Henley (Crimes of the Heart, Nobody’s Fool) will write the script.

Smart recently received rave reviews and won the 2020 Critics Choice Award for her role in HBO’s Watchmen. She has been nominated for five Emmy Awards in addition to her wins, for her roles in Fargo, Harry’s Law, 24 and The District. On the feature side, Smart has starred in Garden State, Guinevere, The Kid, Youth in Revolt, Sweet Home Alabama and A Simple Favor. She will soon appear in the upcoming New Line/HBO Max movie Superintelligence with Melissa McCarthy and in the limited series Mare of Easttown, alongside Kate Winslet. Smart was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the 2000 Broadway revival of The Man Who Came to Dinner.

Producing alongside Taylor is Denise Di Novi, whose credits include Little Women, Edward Scissorhands, Practical Magic, Batman Returns, Heathers and Crazy Stupid Love, as well as President of DiNovi Pictures, Margaret French Isaac, who produced Stepmom. Smart, Mitchell Coburn, John Norris (Ma, executive producer The Help), and Angeliki Giannakopoulos (My Child: Mothers of War, A Beautiful Day, Nick the Greek) will executive produce.

I hear it was Giannakopoulos who, along with Smart, identified Trisha’s story as an idea for a movie. They partnered with Di Novi Pictures and, after Taylor, Norris, and Henley enthusiastically came on board, sold it in a bidding war to Amblin. Combined, Taylor’s The Help and The Girl on the Train grossed $390M at the global box office. The Help scored four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture in 2012, and won Best Supporting actress for Octavia Spencer.

Holly Bario, Amblin Partners’ President of Production, and Mia Maniscalco, VP of Creative Affairs, will oversee the project for the studio.

Smart is represented by WME, Untitled Entertainment and attorney James Adams. Giannakopoulos is represented by attorney James Adams. Coburn is represented by attorney Emerson Bruns. Taylor is repped by CAA and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler, Feldman and Clark. Di Novi Pictures is represented by Jerry Longarzo at Klevan Longarzo Vance Blumensaadt LLP.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.