American author James Patterson is a godsend to weary travelers thanks to his prolific thriller novels, many of which center on a trouble-prone forensic psychologist Alex Cross. A number of Patterson’s books have earned TV and film adaptations, from the short-lived crime drama Women’s Murder Club to three Alex Cross movies: Along Came a Spider, Kiss the Girls, and the upcoming I, Alex Cross, where Morgan Freeman is usurped by Tyler Perry for the title role. Yet Patterson’s latest effort leaves Cross on the bench, favoring instead a new character, “a woman who had everything — a handsome, successful husband; beautiful children; and cool, jet-set friends. But she steps into a terrible trap on a girls’ weekend in Monte Carlo and wakes up sentenced to life in the treacherous French prison system and begins a quest to set things right again.”
Penned alongside David Ellis, Guilty Wives will hit bookstore shelves this March, yet newbie production company Maven Pictures has already snatched up the movie rights. No Maven productions have yet hit theaters, but three are slated for 2012, including an adaptation of Sylvia Plath’s Bell Jar starring Julia Stiles, the dark comedy Imogene starring Kristen Wiig and Glee star Darren Criss, and the Christmas comedy Happy Holidays, Katherine Sloane featuring Kate Beckinsale and Sigourney Weaver. While the genre shifts, it appears there is one constant in Maven’s production line-up: female protagonists. Now this might be a coincidence, but considering women are wildly underrepresented in film (even though me make up the majority of moviegoers), it seems unlikely.
Yet when the formation of Maven Pictures was announced in May of 2011, neither of its founding partners/producers Celine Rattray and Trudie Styler mentioned a feminist or female-driven film agenda. Instead, Rattray, who’d recently won a Golden Globe for her work on The Kids Are Alright, told THR, “Trudie and I want Maven to build a slate that combines smart commercial titles intended for wide release with prestige projects that can play to both the arthouse filmgoer and the movie lover who frequents the local multiplex.” For her part Styler, a BAFTA-nominated producer who shepherded Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels that featured her husband Sting, said, “I love the thrill of discovering an amazing script, a phenomenally talented new filmmaker or a project that screams out that it must be made.”
Perhaps making films about women is just a bonus, or an element they don’t aim to address publicly, hoping to keep the discussion focused on the films themselves. Which, if it’s the latter, who could blame them?
To that end, Styler, who will head the production alongside Rattray and in conjunction with James Patterson Entertainment, told Variety that Guilty Wives is “ an ideal project for Maven as we expand into more commercial territory.”
No word yet on Guilty Wives production schedule or release date.
Are you intrigued by Guilty Wives or Maven Pictures upcoming film slate?