Noah Baumbach is gathering a cast of serious names for his next project, an adaptation of Claire Messud’s novel The Emperor’s Children – Richard Gere, Keira Knightley and Eric Bana are all signing on for roles.
Messud’s tome follows three Brown College graduates in their late 20s looking ahead to their lives with no little trepidation. The story takes place a few months before and then a few months after 9/11 in New York.
Knightley would likely play Marina Thwaite, the beautiful daughter of a social activist and journalist who is struggling to finish her first book, titled The Emperor’s Children Have No Clothes (you says the title, you wins the prize), while Bana is most suited for Ludovic, an ambitious Aussie who woos Marina to get himself invited into Manhattan’s high society. No idea yet which role Gere’s down for.
Baumbach adapted the book for Imagine Entertainment back when Ron Howard was considering directing it. But now the man who made The Squid And The Whale and the upcoming Greenburg is taking over the megaphone.