Dee Rees is on a roll. With her southern drama Mudbound a likely Best Picture frontrunner (If Netflix doesn't screw it up), she has already lined up her next project, and it's one that couldn't come at a better time. Deadline reports Rees will direct An Uncivil War, about the proposed ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
It's not as dull as it sounds, because the fight brought together activists Gloria Steinem and "Flo" Kennedy against conservative, anti-feminist organizer Phyllis Schlafly. The amendment was on a track to be ratified with broad bipartisan support in the late '70s until Schlafly rallied her side to oppose it. If you don't know Schlafly, she was someone who stood against progress in all of its forms, and would later go on to be one of the leading public voices against homosexuals as they sought the same rights as others. She was pretty horrible.
Here's Rees' statement on the news:
“I’m particularly interested in digging into the messiness of the women’s movement–the many different alliances that were formed and fractured and exploring who got left behind vs who got remembered. The richness and texture of this story lie in the complicated bargains struck and broken in the imperfect, stuttering trajectory toward equality. Thrilled that FilmNation let me put my own spin on the script and I’m going to have a lot of fun putting together another amazing ensemble cast to ignite it.”
Rees will rewrite the original script by David Kukoff, with plans for shooting to begin early next year.
