Paul Feig To Direct Mommy Blogger Murder Mystery ‘A Simple Favor’ Starring Anna Kendrick & Blake Lively
Paul Feighas been working in comedy for more than twenty years. Now the man behindFreaks and Geeks,Bridesmaids, and the criminally underseen Melissa McCarthy filmSpyis jumping genres – he’ll next direct a murder mystery calledA Simple Favorthat currently hasAnna Kendrick(Pitch Perfect) andBlake Lively(The Shallows) in talks to star.The Tracking Boardfirst reported the news of everyone’s involvement with this one. Lionsgate is attempting to take over the project from Fox 2000, who purchased it in January of last year. Weirdly, TTB reports thatJessica Sharzer(American Horror Story) wrote the screenplay, whileDeadlinesays Feig will direct from his own adaptation. Regardless of who receives official credit from the WGA, it seems like a sure bet that Feig would at least take a pass at the material given all the writing he’s done in his career thus far.A Simple Favoris based on the popular book of the same name by authorDarcey Bell, which has been compared to thrillers likeGone GirlandThe Girl on the Train. Here’s the synopsis:
But Emily doesn’t come back. She doesn’t answer calls or return texts. Stephanie knows something is terribly wrong—Emily would never leave Nicky, no matter what the police say. Terrified, she reaches out to her blog readers for help. She also reaches out to Emily’s husband, the handsome, reticent Sean, offering emotional support. It’s the least she can do for her best friend…
Soon, Stephanie will begin to see that nothing—not friendship, love, or even an ordinary favor—is as simple as it seems.
I removed a plot reveal from that synopsis in case it’s a spoiler, but either way, it sounds like there might be some shades ofBig Little Liesin the mix here along with theGone Girlvibes. I can totally see Kendrick as an amateur sleuth looking for Lively’s PR exec, so the casting seems right on the money. I’m equally interested in what Feig will do behind the camera since he’s never done anything in this genre before. This story doesn’t sound like it has a ton of room for jokes in it, so it’ll be fascinating to see if he can apply some style and atmospherics to the proceedings, because if his comedies (while often very funny) have a common flaw, it’s that they’re rarely visually arresting pieces of work.
There’s no start date yet, but we’ll keep you posted when we hear more.
