“The Handmaid’s Tale” director Reed Morano is in talks to direct the Anne Frank drama “Keeper of the Diary” for Fox Searchlight, TheWrap has exclusively learned.
Morano won an Emmy last season for directing episodes of Hulu’s dystopian feminist drama. “Keeper of the Diary” is about Otto Frank’s search for a publisher for the diary his teenage daughter kept while they hid from the Nazis during the German occupation of the Netherlands. Anne Frank died in a concentration camp just weeks before it was liberated; Otto was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust.
Kenneth Branagh was previously in talks to direct and star as Otto Frank. Searchlight won “Keeper of the Diary” in an auction for the script by Sam Franco and Evan Kilgore. Five studios bid on the script last year.
“Keeper Of The Diary” will be produced by Matti Leshem and Lynn Harris under their Weimaraner Republic Pictures banner.
TheWrap previously reported that production on spy thriller “The Rhythm Section” which Morano was directing had been temporarily suspended becauseBlake Lively had injured her wrist while filming an action sequence.
Crews are being told to find other work while lead Lively recovers from a hand injury she sustained on set in December — suggesting that the injury is far more serious than previously reported and that the shoot won’t resume for several months.
Morano is repped by WME.