Kristen Stewart, James Franco and Helena Bonham Carter are all in negotiations to board Justin Kelly’s transgender biopic, JT LeRoy.
The Hollywood Reporter has the casting scoop, with news emerging from the ongoing Berlin Film Festival. There, Fortitude are aiming to launch the feature to foreign investors, though the addition of Stewart, Franco and Carter has been the first major sign of progress from the drama.
Set to be written and directed by Kelly, it’s understood the filmmaker will take inspiration from Savannah Knoop’s memoir Girl Boy Girl: How I Became JT Leroy, and it’s safe to assume that either Stewart or Bonham Carter are circling the role of Knoop or author Laura Albert.
At the time of going to press, THR cautions that both Carter and Stewart are yet to put pen to paper. James Franco, meanwhile, is a lock, reuniting with Justin Kelly following their collaboration for 2015’s I Am Michael. Shedding light on the infamous hoax of JT LeRoy, Kelly’s latest feature is set to tell the tale of how Laura Albert spun a web of lies in order to pretend to be a man to the Hollywood elite, fooling the rich and famous of Tinsel Town into believing that she was a genuine transgender.
Part of that plan involved recruiting the aforementioned Savannah Knoop to pose as the fabled JT LeRoy, hence the decision to underpin the story using Knoop’s intimate memoir.
Gaining producing partnerships with LBI Entertainment, Aquarius and Rabbit Bandini Productions, Justin Kelly’s JT LeRoy biopic is eyeing a fall production start. Currently, only James Franco is confirmed to star, and he’ll next be seen as eccentric director Tommy Wiseau in The Disaster Artist.
