She's spent years as a respected actor, and Toni Collette is now making the leap to director for a new film called Writers And Lovers.
Collette co-wrote the script with The Crown's Nick Payne, which adapts Lily King's novel. Iy follows Casey Peabody, an underemployed, aspiring writer in 1990s Boston whose world is rocked by a recent love affair and her mother’s sudden death. After she falls for two very different men at the same time, life gets complicated.
"I have been wanting to direct for quite some time but have been a bit busy with my day job,” Collette says in a statement picked up by Variety. "I couldn’t be more thrilled to be bringing Lily King’s beautiful, funny, moving novel to filmic life. It’s an empowering story that speaks to me as a woman and an artist. It’s ultimately about coming to know and believe in oneself. This is not always an easy feat, but the most important journey any person can take. It inspires me on so many levels."
Topic Studios is backing the film, which will shoot this year.