Posted on 10/03/2018 7:59:53 AM PDT by EdnaMode
Michelle Williams is set to star as Christa McAuliffe in The Challenger, a feature film about the 1986 space shuttle tragedy being produced by John and Art Linson and Argent Pictures’ Ben Renzo. Land of Mine director Martin Zandvliet will direct the biopic of sorts that is penned by Jayson Rothwell. A May 2019 production start is being eyed.
The Challenger will follow the true story of McAuliffe, a New Hampshire high school teacher who was selected to join NASA’s Teacher in Space Project. She eventually became part of the astronaut crew on the Space Shuttle Challenger, which launched from Cape Canaveral on January 28, 1986. The shuttle exploded 73 seconds after takeoff, on live TV, killing all seven aboard.
McAuliffe’s memory and mission left a lasting impression and legacy on her family, community and teachers worldwide (as the first teacher in space, McAuliffe was to have conducted classes during the mission). Many schools have been named in her honor, and she posthumously received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
“We are more than humbled and extremely grateful for the opportunity to help tell the story of Christa McAuliffe and the Challenger mission,” Renzo said. “Christa McAuliffe’s legacy deserves the strength, courage, experience and humanity that Michelle Williams brings to the role. The entire Argent team is honored and eager to responsibly capture and share the events and personal journeys of those surrounding this important historical moment with audiences around the world to help remember and further appreciate the sacrifices Christa and rest of the Challenger crew made to further our journey into space.”
Argent partners Jill Ahrens, Ryan Ahrens, Drew Brees, Tony Parker, Michael Finley and Derrick Brooks are executive producing.
Williams, a four-time Oscar nominee including most recently as Supporting Actress for 2017’s Manchester By the Sea, is next up on the big screen in Sony’s Venom opposite Tom Hardy and Riz Ahmed. It opens wide Friday.
She also just wrapped production on Bart Freundlich’s After the Wedding with Julianne Moore, and now has now started work on FX’s eight-episode limited series starring Sam Rockwell as Bob Fosse and Williams as Gwen Verdon. That project hails from Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda and Thomas Kail, Dear Evan Hansen‘s Steven Levenson, Fox 21 TV Studios and FX Productions.
Williams is repped by WME, Brillstein Entertainment and Bloom, Hergott.
I didn’t know that, that’s interesting.
Was earp a consultant on a movie?
Wyatt in the 1920 hung around film studios and offered his expert advice about the Real West.
This is amazing! What did you think about kurt Russell’s portrayal? I read about doc and the book said doc couldn’t hit a barn but no one challenged him because of the tb they thought he had a death wish.
Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer. IMHO the BEST Wyatt/ Doc combo. Tombstone #1. I’ll be your huckleberry.
Much better movie than the long winded Kostner epic of Wyatt Earp. Though I like the extended history in Earp and will sit through it if it’s on.
Tombstone, Unforgiven and the original Lonesome Dove mini series are in my opinion the best westerns in the late 20th Century.
I would have to say my all time favorite is The Magnificent Seven. This plot has been used in more movies than any other.
James Coburn telling them “ No one gives me .y guns and tells me to leave, no one.”
Or Steve McQueen in Magnificent Seven “We Deal in Lead, Friend.”
Another similar movie called “The Professionals” stared Lee Marvin. And the BEST of the go to Mexico and save the peons “The Wild Bunch”. Damn that’s good Sam Peckinpah!
I shoot in cowboy matches that are based on that movie. Wild Bunch cowboy shoots include 1911s, 1897 pump winchester shotguns and various turn of the century rifles.
Own those too!
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