If you venture into your local book store or library, there’s a good chance that within the armful of novels you cart home, at least one has either been adapted or is in the process of being adapted into a film. Hey, it’s the nature of the Hollywood beast nowadays. With authors and their creative minds acting as a spawning ground for new feature length movies, their masterpieces are even earmarked for the big screen before they hit shelves. The latest literary tome heading into that territory is Matthew Quick’s Love May Fail, which Sam Raimi might direct.
Quick’s name is guaranteed to rouse the attention of producers. His novel Silver Linings Playbook scored a ton of critical acclaim and an Oscar for leading lady Jennifer Lawrence. His specific style, situated in the same arena as Jonathan Tropper (who penned This Is Where I Leave You), is ideal dramedy fodder, which means there’s a strong possibility of awards consideration.
In his upcoming title, Love May Fail, slotted for release in June 2015, “a woman who is coming off a demoralizing ending to her marriage to a cheating husband, returns to her hometown determined to clear the name of her favorite English teacher, whose career was forcibly ended after a classroom scandal.” It sounds like another winning insight into human nature amidst times of trouble; a topic Quick handles with panache.
But what about Sam Raimi? He’s apparently discussing the role of director on the project, which is being developed over at Sony. If he does indeed take the reigns, he’ll be reunited with producer Matt Tolmach, who he collaborated with on the Spider-Man trilogy. At first this seems like an unlikely choice for the former lo-fi horror auteur, but after his jaunt into blockbusters, a smaller character piece could be just what he needs.
With a script from Mike White (Nacho Libre, Orange County) Love May Fail is shaping up to be an exciting project indeed.
