Actor plans big-screen version of Summer Crossing, Capote's 'inspired' early work about young debutante in 1945 New York
Scarlett Johansson will become the latest Hollywood star to make the leap to director with an adaptation of Truman Capote's posthumously discovered debut novel, Summer Crossing.
The project will see Johansson make her directing debut with the story of a 17-year-old Protestant debutante who embarks on an affair with a Jewish parking-lot attendant while her family vacations in Paris during the summer of 1945. It is currently being touted to potential investors at the Cannes film festival.
"Several years ago I began working alongside the Capote estate and writer Tristine Skyler to adapt Summer Crossing, an inspired early work of Truman's which has long captured my heart," said Johansson in a statement. "Being able to bring this story to the screen as my full-length directorial debut is a life dream and deep privilege."
Summer Crossing was deemed "thin, clever, unfelt" by Capote during his lifetime, though he also said he felt it was "well written [with] a lot of style". The author is said to have thrown the manuscript in the rubbish in a fit of self-criticism. It was rediscovered many years later and finally published in 2004 with the blessing of the author's editor.
Johansson aims to shoot Summer Crossing in early 2014. She becomes the latest in a wave of young female Hollywood stars to shift behind the camera. Ellen Page, 25, is to make her directorial debut next year with Miss Stevens, starring Anna Faris as a teacher chaperoning a mob of high-school students to a state drama competition. In February Melissa McCarthy, who enjoyed a breakout role in the comedy Bridesmaids in 2011, was revealed to be in negotiations to direct the raunchy comedy Tammy. She will star alongside husband Ben Falcone.