Following the colossal undertaking of the last four Harry Potter films, David Yates has had any number of high-profile projects dangled under his nose, carrot like, by his impressed and grateful Warner employers. There's been talk of Stephen King's The Stand, Vertigo Comics' Fables, Al Capone epic Cicero, Jonathan Tropper's farce This Is Where I Leave You, and something-or-other called The Doctor Who Movie, But he seems to have plumped for none of them, at least in the immediate future, with the news coming from Screen Daily that Yates will next direct Your Voice In My Head, based on the memoir by Emma Forrest{
It's apparently a deliberate breather from large-scale efforts, and a definite break from the broad strokes of Potter to a more intimate portrait of a mental breakdown and its after-effects. Yates describes it as "about a young woman who self harms... and the psychiatrist who helps her to learn to live again”. The director promises “It’s got very heightened, odd moments in it that are slightly trippy.” So it sounds as if he isn't quite leaving the fantasy behind.
Producer Alison Owen meanwhile, was keen to talk up the "contemporary young female character and razor sharp dialogue". The BFI is funding development of the Ruby Films production, with Warner Bros stepping in later to inject some of the cash for the actual shoot. Forrest has written her own screenplay adaptation, and if you want to check out her book in the meantime, it'll be published in paperback by Bloomsbury on January 19.