She survived making Fifty Shades Of Grey and director Sam Taylor-Johnson is considering a whole new, very different challenge. She’s in talks to direct a drama about one of the most famous US political scandals, Chappaquiddick.
Not actually a biopic of a lesser-known Star Wars character, it’ll look at the traumatic, tragic seven days in the life of Senator Ted Kennedy, who, in the late 1960s, was involved in a car accident that claimed the life of Mary Jo Kopechne. The incident saw him driving the vehicle off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island on July 18, 1969, swimming free and waiting several hours before reporting the accident.
Kopechne drowned in the car and her body was recovered the next day and the incident became a huge national scandal, resulting in Kennedy receiving a two-month suspended jail sentence and derailing plans to follow brothers John and Robert into campaigning for the US presidency.
Writers Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan have worked up a political thriller that chronicles the true story of the seven days around the accident, which has been circulating to acclaim amongst Hollywood agencies and studios. Now producer Mark Ciardi and Apex Entertainment have Taylor-Johnson interested in making it. "I’ve done a lot of true life stories, many sports stories, but this one had a deep impact on this country," Ciardi says in a statement. "Everyone has an idea of what happened on Chappaquiddick and this strings together the events in a compelling and emotional way. You’ll see what he had to go through."