Erin Cressida Wilson continues her hot streak. The in-demand screenwriter has been tapped to adapt “Eileen,” Ottessa Moshfegh’s award-winning debut novel, for Fox Searchlight and producer Scott Rudin. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news.
Since its release in August 2015, “Eileen” has earned both rave reviews and comparisons to Gillian Flynn’s compulsively readable best-seller “Gone Girl.” Another suspenseful thriller hailed as the next “Gone Girl” was, of course, Paula Hawkins’ “The Girl on the Train,” which Wilson adapted for the big-screen. The movie, starring Emily Blunt, hits theaters October 7.
Like “The Girl on the Train,” “Eileen” centers on a lonely, troubled female protagonist. The story takes place in the early ’60s outside of Boston, where Eileen is working as a secretary at a boy’s prison as she dreams of making a life in the big city. Eileen becomes involved in “a very strange crime” that, according to the book’s description, “surpasses her wildest imaginings.”
Wilson launched on to the scene back in 2002 with “Secretary,” a well-received BDSM romance featuring a career-making performance from Maggie Gyllenhaal. Her other credits include 2006’s “Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus,” and 2009’s “Chloe.” Last year Wilson signed on to adapt L.S. Hilton’s “Maestra,” another buzzy novel, for Amy Pascal and Sony, and she penned an adaptation of Anna Snoekstra’s “The New Winter” for Working Title and Universal.
