How did you spend your Thanksgiving holiday? While most of us were busy stuffing our faces, Ron Howard was busy lining up his next project. Universal has picked up the rights to the anticipated novel, The Girl Before, a thriller penned by J.P. Delaney which many believe is a pseudonym for best-selling author, Tony Strong. Howard will direct and produce alongside his pal Brian Grazer and Michael De Luca.
This is yet another thriller with the word "Girl" in the title so it'll probably be a hit. The story centers on a traumatized woman who falls in love with an extraordinary minimalist home and with the man who designed it. However, when she learns that three years earlier another damaged woman died there she begins to wonder if she's following in the same footsteps.
Thrillers aren't usally Howard's forte, his Dan Brown adaptations The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons being notable exceptions, but he's always been the kind of director without a true signature style. There's no reason to think he'll have any trouble with it. [Deadline]
