Kristen, James Franco, & Helena Bonham Carter To Star In ‘JT Leroy

Fortitude will launch the project to foreign buyers at Berlin’s European Film Market; Justin Kelly is writing and directing.

Kristen Stewart, James Franco and Helena Bonham Carter are circling the biopic JT Leroy, a Hollywood-set transgender story.

Justin Kelly, who directed James Franco in 2015’s I Am Michael, will helm the film from a script he wrote. The true story goes behind the scenes of the hoax of JT LeRoy, a woman who pretended to be a man who identifies as transgender, tricking the rich and famous in Hollywood, the fashion world and elite literary circles.

The biopic will be based on memoir and life rights of Savannah Kroop, who was behind the complicated ruse. LBI Entertainment, Aquarius and Rabbit Bandini Productions are producing with Aquarius providing equity financing.

Franco is attached while Stewart and Carter are currently in negotiations. Fortitude International will launch the project to foreign buyers at Berlin’s European Film Market, with a 2016 production start date planned.

Kelly is no stranger to bringing fascinating real-life tales to the big screen. I am Michael, which was based on New York Times Magazine article My Ex-Gay Friend, centered on a man, Michael Glatze, a gay activist who renounced homosexuality after he became a Christian pastor. It screened at both Sundance and Berlin in 2015. He’s repped by CAA and LBI Entertainment.

Following up her strong performances in 2014 films Clouds of Sils Maria and Still Alice, Stewart was most recently seen in American Ultra with Jesse Eisenberg, Equals (which premiered in Toronto) with Nicholas Hoult and Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women, which premiered at Sundance. Her other upcoming projects include Woody Allen’s next feature, Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and reuniting with director Olivier Assayas for Personal Shopper. She’s repped by Gersh and McKuin Frankel Whitehead.

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