Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election is well documented, and the historic mess it caused will now be the subject of a film. Susanna Fogel – one of the four women who wrote one of the year’s best films, Booksmart – will direct Winner, a biopic about Reality Leigh Winner, a former American intelligence specialist who was the first to expose Russia’s interference.
Winner was arrested in 2017 and is currently serving a five-and-a-half year prison sentence, but she acted courageously to expose how America got stuck with a President facing impeachment and perhaps the most politically divided times in recent history.
Kerry Howley has penned the script, having previously written the article “Who is Reality Winner?” for New York Magazine back in 2017. Dani Melia and Peter Saraf of Big Beach are producing. The studio is also behind films such as The Farewell and A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood.
“We are honoured to be bringing Reality Winner‘s story to screen from a beautiful screenplay by Kerry Howley“, said Melia. “We have been longtime fans of Susanna Fogel and can think of no one better to capture this complex character through an empathetic and human lens. This is an urgent story that far too few Americans are aware of, and we have assembled the perfect creative team to tell it”.
Fogel previously directed the very sweet 2014 indie Life Partners, and the 2018 comedy The Spy Who Dumped Me. She also directed the pilots of upcoming shows The Flight Attendant and The Wilds. Fogel said herself about the project:
“Reality Winner is a mouthpiece for a generation of young people who are struggling to square their personal ethics with the crumbling ethics of our country’s institutions, which we want to be proud of and have allegiance to. Kerry’s incredible script lays the groundwork for us to approach her timely story with humour and emotion, rather than preaching or partisanship”.
This should be very interesting. Read the original New York magazine article here.
#Peace.Love.Winner
