After making a successful move into directing with voice-over comedy In A World… Lake Bell has tracked down a follow-up. She’s now on board to make the adaptation of Claire Messud’s novel The Emperor’s Children for Imagine{
Messud’s book, unusually for a title in development, hit shelves way back in 2007. The story 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.
Noah Baumbach was attached back in 2010, wrote a script and was in the process of looking for a cast, with Keira Knightley, Richard Gere and Eric Bana all mooted. Bell may give the screenplay her own spin, or she may decide to direct it as is, but it remains to be seen if she’ll push it closer to the screen than Baumbach managed.
Acting-wise, Bell is part of action thriller** The Coup** with Owen Wilson and Pierce Brosnan and stars opposite Simon Pegg in offbeat romantic comedy drama Man Up, due next year. She’ll next be on our screens opposite Jon Hamm in Million Dollar Arm, which arrives on August 29; look out for more from Jon Hamm on that film in this week's podcast, out on Friday.