The ranks of female film directors are about to swell a little more, as Katie Holmes confirms her plan to helm the upcoming adaptation of the debut novel from Annie Weatherwax – All We Had. The script is being written by Josh Boone (Stuck In Love, The Fault In Our Stars), with Holmes starring and pulling producer duties alongside Jane Rosenthal (Little Fockers) and Berry Welsh (NYC 22).
The story is described as ‘wry and sharply observed’ by publishers Simon And Schuster, and centres on a mother and 13 year old daughter, who find themselves existing on the verge of poverty in small town America, after their old life implodes. Holmes will play the role of the mother, but there is no news yet on wider casting.
While this news will almost certainly be met in many quarters with derision, it is important to note that, of late, Holmes has finally begun to come into her own. Admittedly, we have waited a long time – specifically, through countless episodes of Dawson’s Creek, a strangely blank performance in Batman Begins and – dare we say it? – Jack And Jill. But with her most recent performance attracting the right kind of attention on the festival circuit, in Karen Leigh Hopkins’ Miss Meadows, it seems that Katie Holmes is about ready to shake off the strange lack of commitment she has displayed since 2002, and show us what she’s made of.
Personally, I’m looking forward to it. Regardless of your attitude toward her past acting prowess, Holmes has spent the last seventeen years working with an impressive roster of directors – Sam Raimi, Ang Lee, Curtis Hanson, Doug Liman, Joel Schumacher, Stephen Gaghan, Forest Whitaker, Jason Reitman, Callie Khouri, Jon Cassar and Christopher Nolan among them – presumably watching, learning and building her own take on how it should be done. She already took a peek at life behind the camera by executive producing The Romantics in 2010, and is said to co-writing a script of her own, called Molly. Producer Jane Rosenthal explained:
“Katie has such a clear vision for the book’s irreverent original mother-daughter relationship. Her passion for the material, along with Josh Boone’s ability to tell stories grounded in the comedy and drama of every day, will truly bring these characters to life.”
Perhaps it is a new-found confidence that has arrived with age, but you can see it in every frame of the Miss Meadows trailer. That odd, arms’ length distance at which Holmes used to keep the audience has diminished, and she finally seems to be entirely there – fully inhabiting the character. If that is the kind of wholehearted ferocity with which she is planning to embrace this directorial venture, then All We Had cold be an interesting project indeed.
