Around this time last year Jennifer Aniston was making her strongest bid for an Oscar with her dramatic turn in Cake. While she received some of the best reviews of her career the buzz around that performance faded, and we haven't seen much from her since other than a comedic turn in Peter Bogdanovich's She's Funny That Way. But she's heading back to dramatic territory in a big way, recently signing on to star in Iraq War drama The Yellow Birds, and now an adaptation of Liane Moriarty's book, What Alice Forgot.
The project has been developing since last year with Aniston's Marley & Me director David Frankel on board. Now The Tracking Board reports that he is dropping out just as Aniston is signing on. Shauna Cross wrote the most recent screenplay which centers on 29-year-old Alice, who is pregnant with her first child. In a slight twist from the novel, Alice suffers a head injury and wakes up 10 years later divorced and a single mother with two kids. She sets out to reconnect with her ex-husband, who she thought was her soulmate, and get her old life back.
With Frankel out, the studio is looking to also bring in a new writer who will give the story more of an emotional boost, changing gears from a broad commercial film to a personal drama. Aniston has proven she can handle whatever direction they decide to go in.
