“How I Met Your Mother” alumni Ashley Williams and Pamela Fryman are teaming up for a new project. The former portrayed recurring fan favorite Victoria and the latter directed almost every episode of the long-running CBS sitcom, and now they are reuniting on a film adaptation of Camas Davis’ memoir “Killing It: An Education.” According to Deadline, Williams will star in the pic and Fryman is attached to direct.
Published in 2018, “Killing It” “follows Davis’ journey from unemployed journalist to France where she entrenches herself in the world of an artisan butcher community and then back to Portland, Oregon which was in the throes of a food revolution.”
Williams recently made her directorial debut with “Meats,” inspired by Camas’ book. The short film debuted this past weekend at Sundance. The “Jim Gaffigan Show” alumna also penned and stars in the project, which was acquired by Fryman and Alan Grossbard’s Scrambled Eggs Productions.
The “Killing It” film adaptation’s team — which includes producers Grossbard (“And They’re Off”) and Neal Dodson (“Margin Call”) — also secured Davis’ screen life rights. Davis will serve as a producer and consultant on the feature.
Fryman helmed 196 episodes of “How I Met Your Mother’s” 208-episode-run. The veteran TV director also counts “One Day at a Time,” “Frasier,” and “Just Shoot Me!” among her many credits. Fryman recently directed the TV specials “All in the Family” and “Good Times,” live updates of the classic Norman Lear series.
“A Most Violent Year,” “Girls,” and “FBI” are among Williams’ screen credits. She is currently in prep to direct TV movies for Lifetime and Hallmark, per the source. She received the Creative Coalition Spotlight Award at Sundance this past weekend, alongside filmmaker Julie Taymor (“The Glorias”) and “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” star Rachel Brosnahan.
In a guest post for Women and Hollywood, Williams detailed her transition from acting to directing, and described stepping behind the camera for the first time as a “thrill.” “The crew was comprised of friends who worked for pizza. My kids’ babysitter was a PA. Neal [Dodson, her husband] was my first AD, data wrangler, gaffer, and therapist,” she revealed. “My hands shook with excitement for days after we wrapped. ‘Meats’ is about a female butcher — it felt right that I’d direct a story about a woman experimenting with a traditionally male profession.”