DreamWorks Studios has acquired Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling novel The Help. Set in the 1960s, the project, which centers on Southern white women and their black housekeepers, had already been optioned by Stockett’s childhood friend rookie director Tate Taylor. He also adapted the script with a lot of consultation from Stockett. According to DreamWorks co-president of production Holly Bario, she and studio chief Stacey Snider had been tracking The Help for over a year and met with Taylor after he finished his script. “We had a good solid meeting with him last week,” said Bario. “He met with Steven [Spielberg]. He watched movies with Steven. We are in it.”
With not a lot of rewrites expected on the adaptation, which is also being produced by Taylor’s producing partner Brunson Green and Percy Jackson director Chris Columbus, the studio hopes to begin shooting the film this summer in Mississippi. That’s got to be good news to the legion of Help fans who have kept the novel on The New York Times Best Sellers list for 47 weeks.
As for the cast, nothing has been set but Bario is equally excited about that part of the process. “The casting process is going to be the most fun part about this. This is a total tour de force for women.”
Sounds like an Oscar worthy movie if done right and potentially a classic with mass appeal.
I loved the Help. Hope they do the movie right. Can’t wait.
This is great news! Chandra Wilson is perfect for the part of Minnie. Can’t wait for this movie.
See, I see Mo’nique as Minny… Oh this will have a great cast!
How could this book be trusted to someone who hasn’t written or directed anything before? Very odd.
Bikky- What is odd is your lack of knowledge regarding Tate Taylor. He wrote and directed a short film called “Chicken Party” and wrote and directed the new release “Pretty Ugly People”. Do your homework before you make your next factually inaccurate post.
Uncle Chuck,
Now you know Bikky can’t know everything. Why did you forget to tell her that he was also the male senasation in the KY couples commercial not too long ago.
UB
Here we go again. White girl saves po black womens. We already had it Secret Life of Bees, Blindside, now this? White folks loved this book, black people will be angry. Again. The title alone is offensive.
Excuse me I’m black and I loved it…I prise Katharyn for digging deep to know they way we as black women working for white women feel the emotional issues we go through raising their children w/ barely enough time to see our own and the fact that while white males got most attention w/ race crimes it was there wives “with those tools” really driving the men and ruining the lives of black families and In Jackson Mississippi WOW …if they do this right w/ best NOT ALL BIG ACTORS it can sweep the Academy Awards
Ms. Apple, did you read the book?
Black women would never have told a 23-year old white girl what it was like cleaning houses for white folks. They wouldn’t have cared what she thought nor trusted her and what did they stand to gain from it? And the dialect was all wrong: insulting. The white women were uneducated and didn’t even sound southern. Full of stereotypes. Wait and see. My mother cleaned houses and she didn’t care about her job.
Steven Spielberg already had his Color Purple. Why is it that a white person can write about black people and its a hit when black writers have been doing it for years and it somehow doesn’t seem to be as compelling, not enough to become a movie. Ms. Stockett is no authority on black maids but everything read this book as if she was. They hated their jobs. Steven be sure to include racism and the civil rights movement as a backdrop and make sure the white girl is the star, as usual. And take out the pie. No black person would do that.
Ms. Apple Just to let you know Alice Walker is the BLACK author of “The Color Purple”. I’m so sad for you. You don’t get it. The story was about individuals not a race INDIVDUALS! White Black Rich or Poor, it takes individuals to make change happen. Make a choice to be a “Kind and Good” indivdual. I also found the story as the Black women saving the white girl. Think about it, really think about it.
The Help is degrading. Read some of the comments on Amazon.com. White readers feel as if they’ve been made privy to a part of history they didn’t know about. That’s because they don’t read books by black writers about black people, only books by white writers about black people. And they believe the white version, as if Ms. Stockett is the authority on what black maids felt. They would NEVER have told her the truth. Or talked to her at all. Total b.s.
Ms. Apple, The book is fiction. Don’t take it so seriously that people enjoyed it. It was entertaining. I didn’t read Twilight and all of a sudden think that Vampires existed, it was just entertaining. There are plenty of books and movies that depict other races poorly. You’re probably right that maids wouldn’t have told their stories, but how interesting if they had. It’s a novel not meant to be truth. I know I’m just one person…
oh lordy, I is be is so angy dats the white folks be makin a movie about us. Don’t they know it only ok for us to do that about dem. damn. Is thinks dat my black ass has lots to say on dis here intronet and can’t do shit wit my life so all isa do is talk shit about da white folk instead of writin a movie myself if I is so angry.
Wake up niggers. You provide us with entertainment. That is the only reason we keep you around. Wake up to that fact. If we want to make a movie about you. Especially one that doesn’t depict you as the pieces of shit that you are, you should bend over backward and say, “why thank you massa”
Why are you even here? People love to talk big over the internet, I bet you would never say this in person. Troll.
And the icing on the casting cake would be Oprah playing Aibleen.
OPRAH AND WHOOOPI SHOULD NOT BE IN THIS MOVIE that’s expected b/c of there roles in The Color Purple and would be the first mistake made on the road to the Academy…Alre Woodard shold play ailbeen Octavia Specer as minny (she was the voice of her on audio version) I can see Meryle Streep as Hilly she can play the mean woman all to well, Scarlett Johanson as Celia what do you guys think that’s all i got right now
Ms. Apple – I can assure you, white people do not ONLY want to read books written by other white people. No matter what the topic. Sounds like you have a little case of reverse racism going on over there. I am a white woman and I find racism of any kind despicable.
In my mind the cast looked like this -
Aibileen – Queen Latifah
Minny – Jennifer Hudson
Skeeter – Reese Witherspoon
Hilly – Anne Hathaway
Elizabeth – Ginnifer Goodwin
I like that lineup! Only change I’d love, is if Rachel McAdams were in the mix somehow. Maybe as Hilly.
I WOULD LOVE TO BE ADDED TO THE CAST!
PLEASE- Whoppie Goldburg MUST be in this!!!