After proving himself highly capable of balancing comedy and drama in his Joseph Gordon-Levitt cancer pic 50/50, Jonathan Levine will be taking on another project that mines laughs from dark places. He’s attached to direct Miles Teller in Home Is Burning, an adaptation of the upcoming memoir by Dan Marshall.
Teller stars as the author, who returns home to help care for his ailing parents. The Whiplash actor will also produce.
Marshall is set to pen the script based on his own book, which arrives this October. Adaptation rights were highly sought after by multiple studios, but New Line evidently made the author a deal he couldn’t refuse.
Here’s the full synopsis for the book:
Dan’s mom has always had cancer. First diagnosed when he was only ten years old, she was the model of resilience throughout his childhood, fighting her disease with tenacity and a mouth foul enough to make a sailor blush. But just as she faces a relapse, her husband is diagnosed with ALS. Dan, a recent college graduate living the good life in Los Angeles, has no choice but to return home to help.
Reinstalled in his parents’ basement Dan is reunited with his siblings. His older sister Tiffany is resentful, having stayed closer to home to bear the brunt of their mother’s illness. Younger brother Greg comes to lend a hand, giving up a journalism career and evenings cruising Chicago gay bars. Michelle, a sullen teenager is experimenting with drinking and flirting with her 35-year-old soccer coach. And baby sister Chelsea-the oddest duck in a family of misfits- lives in a dream world centered around dance. Together this unlikely group forms Team Terminal, going to battle against their parents’ illnesses, and occasionally each other. Not even the family cats escape unscathed.
As Dan steps into his role as caregiver, wheelchair wrangler, and sibling referee, he watches pieces of his previous life slip away, and comes to realize that you don’t get to choose when it’s time to grow up.
Levine seems ideally matched for the project, and with a talented actor like Teller in front of his camera, there’s reason to expect big things from Home is Burning. We’ll keep you posted as the supporting cast is filled out.
