Though Channing Tatum quickly escaped the tearjerker genre after following up his 2012 romantic drama The Vow with lighter-hearted crowdpleasers 21 Jump Street and Magic Mike, the A-lister is heading back into weepie territory for Two Kisses for Maddy, a project he’s developing and possibly starring in for Sony.
Originally envisioned as a Lifetime movie, the pic adapts Matthew Logelin’s New York Times bestseller Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss and Love, about how Logelin endured the death of his wife 27 hours after she gave birth to their daughter, and his experiences raising the child as a single parent. It’s named for the two kisses he gave his daughter every night.
Tatum will produce with his professional partner Peter Kiernan through their Free Association banner, and Temple Hill’s Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey are attached in the same capacity. Sony is likely looking at Tatum to lead the drama, but that decision will come later down the line and require another deal to be signed.
Dana Stevens has been tapped to write the script. Her credits include Nicholas Sparks adaptation Safe Haven, romantic drama City of Angels and Angelina Jolie starrer Life or Something Like It, so she clearly has experience balancing the sweet and the sad, a mixture that Two Kisses for Maddy will be sure to feature.
For Tatum, the appeal of the project is likely very personal – his wife, Jenna Dewan, gave birth to their first daughter, Everly, back in 2013.
The Foxcatcher actor is in the enviable position of being able to take on really any project he desires (even the high-profile failure of Jupiter Ascending doesn’t appear to have tarnished his reputation at all). He’ll next be seen in this summer’s Magic Mike XXL before appearing as a a Hollywood actor in the Coen Brothers’ anticipated Hollywood satire Hail, Caesar! next February. The subject matter of Two Kisses for Maddy is obviously near and dear to his heart, so it should be interesting to see how the pic takes form.
