Nicholas Hoult & Zoey Deutch headline biopic Rebel in the Rye based on J.D. Salinger: A Life

J.D. Salinger/WWII 

This should excite several generations of Holden Caulfield and J.D. Salinger fans. Danny Strong (Selma) is adapting the  Kenneth Slawenski biography J.D. Salinger: A Life with Nicholas Hoult in the starring role as the author, just prior to the writing of Catcher in the Rye. 

Nicholas Hoult

The biopic— Rebel in the Rye—has just added Zoey Deutch as Oona O’Neill, the daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill. O’Neill was the talk of the town and had what’s described as a tumultuous relationship with then unknown Salinger. Not to spoil things but it must have been an incredibly short-lived romance: she went on to marry Charlie Chaplin when she was only 18, Chaplin being 36 years her senior! The marriage obliterated an already strained relationship with her playwright father. 

Oona O’Neill 

Oona and Chaplin stayed together until he died in 1977 and raised 7 kids together. Seems to me like Oona is one of those women we ought to be making a movie about!

Zoey Deutch—a dead ringer for O’Neill— is the daughter of Leah Thompson and Howard Deutch; you might have caught the young actress in Vampire Diaries, Ringer and most recently, Dirty Grandpa, which I wisely avoided. Deutch has a ton of projects coming out this year including Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some due out April 1, and a leading role in the movie adaptation of Lauren Oliver’s YA bestseller Before I Fall, kind of a teen Groundhog Day.  

Kevin Spacey is onboard as Whit Burnet, the editor of STORY magazine and something of a mentor to Salinger.  The cast includes Laura Dern, Brian D’Arcy James and Hope Davis, but I know not in what context.

Update 4/28/2016 Sarah Paulson has joined the cast as Dorothy Olding, Salinger’s agent. Olding believed in “Jerry”  Salinger when she read his first short stories and stayed loyal to him throughout his career.

Does this entice you to read Slawenski’s bio first?