Uma, Anita; Anita, Uma. As reported by THR and other trade outlets, Uma Thurman has been cast as outspoken anti-gay activist Anita Bryant in the upcoming film "Anita."
Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, the duo behind the biopics "Howl" (about Allen Ginsberg) and "Lovelace" (about porn star Linda Lovelace), will direct the film from a script by Chad Hodge. "Anita" has been in development since 2010, when it was an HBO movie that Darren Star ("Sex and the City") was set to direct.
"I pitched it to HBO in early 2010 and then spent the first six months of the year doing nothing but research," Hodge told The Back Lot back in 2011. "The research culminated with meeting Anita for three days in Oklahoma." According to that 2011 interview with Hodge, his script will focus on Bryant's notorious 1977 anti-gay campaign and whether Bryant still feels the same way. In addition to being a political activist, Bryant is also a former recording star and beauty pageant winner. As THR notes, "Anita" will also include Hodge's meetings with Bryant.
Thurman will next be seen in Lars Von Trier's sex film "Nymphomaniac." For more on the Bryant project, head over to THR.
