Lily Rabe will co-direct and star in a film adaptation of Chuck Klosterman’s Downtown Owl, Deadline reports.
The American Horror Story star will direct the movie alongside Legion and Midnight Mass actor Hamish Linklater, her life partner, who is also writing the screenplay. It will be the directorial debut for both Rabe and Linklater, who are also producing the film.
Klosterman’s novel, published by Scribner in 2008, follows three residents of the fictional North Dakota town of Owl, whose lives are derailed by a massive blizzard. A critic for Kirkus called the book “a debut novel that works better as cultural criticism than it does as fiction.”
Also starring in the film will be Ed Harris (Apollo 13), Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical), Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians), Finn Wittrock (The Normal Heart), Jack Dylan Grazer (It), and August Blanco Rosenstein (The Last Full Measure). The music will be contributed by T Bone Burnett, whose movie work includes O Brother, Where Art Thou?; Crazy Heart; and Walk the Line.
Rabe shared news of the project on Instagram, writing, “So proud and honored to be telling this story with the most exquisite collaborators. It’s been a long road, but so very worth it. I love making movies and feel so incredibly lucky to be making this one.”
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
