“Transparent’s” musical series finale dropped less than a month ago, but its Emmy-winning creator, writer, director, and exec producer Jill Soloway is showing no signs of slowing down. Their packed slate just got even more crowded: Soloway has signed on to direct a biopic about Sally Ride, the first American woman to travel to space, for Lionsgate. Deadline confirmed the news.
Titled “Ride,” the film will explore Ride’s life and “her historic mission on the Challenger space shuttle in 1983, her first of two trips into space,” the source details. Cassie Pappas (“Awkward.”) penned the script based on an original spec by Krystin Ver Linden.
Soloway will produce “Ride” with Andrea Sperling via their Topple banner. Kristin Burr (“Cruella”) is also producing.
Ride first joined NASA in 1978. The trailblazing astronaut and physicist was the third woman to ever journey to space, following Valentina Tereshkova (1963) and Svetlana Savitskaya (1982).
After leaving NASA in 1987, Ride worked at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Arms Control and as a professor at the University of California, San Diego. She died in 2012.
Natalie Portman plays an astronaut in “Lucy in the Sky.” In theaters now, the drama tells the story of a woman who struggles to adapt to life on Earth after completing a space mission.
Soloway made their feature directorial debut with 2013 Kathryn Hahn-starrer “Afternoon Delight.” Inspired by Soloway’s experience of their own parent coming out as trans, “Transparent” told the story of the Pfefferman family, and ran for five seasons on Amazon Prime. Its last season consisted of a feature-length musical. Soloway also created Amazon Prime series “I Love Dick,” which lasted one season.
Soloway has a high-profile comic adaptation on the way. They are on board to write and direct “Red Sonja,” a spinoff of the “Conan the Barbarian” series that centers on a female warrior. They are also signed on to co-write and direct “Mothertrucker,” a drama that sees Julianne Moore playing an ice road trucker.
