Leslye Headland is following up a never-ending birthday party with an epic con story. The “Russian Doll” co-creator has been tapped to direct “American Huckster” for HBO Films, Deadline confirms. She’ll also rewrite the script.
Based on Mary Papenfuss and Teri Thompson’s 2016 book “American Huckster: How Chuck Blazer Got Rich from — and Sold Out — the Most Powerful Cabal in World Sports,” the pic tells the story of “a hustler from Queens who managed to wheel and deal his way to the top of FIFA, the governing body of soccer — and the most powerful and corrupt sports organization in the world.” Will Ferrell stars.
Headland is among the project’s exec producers. Her new Netflix series, “Russian Doll,” sees Natasha Lyonne playing a video game designer who can’t stop dying and reliving her 36th birthday party. “SMILF” and “Terriers” are among her other small screen credits. Headland made her feature directorial debut with 2012’s “Bachelorette,” a dark comedy based on her play of the same name. She also wrote and directed 2015 Alison Brie-starrer “Sleeping with Other People.”
When we asked Headland the biggest misconception about her work, she said, “That I only write about shitty people. Or that I’m trying to be shocking. I just think people are super weird, so I like to write characters that get addicted to things, lose their minds, hurt others, and put themselves in bad situations. I’m just more interested in that,” she explained.
