After making her feature debut with 2019’s “Hala,” a coming-of-age story about a Muslim teenager, Minhal Baig is turning her camera on a protagonist in a very different chapter of her life. She’s signed on to co-write and direct an adaptation of “We Spread,” a portrait of an aging artist. Anonymous Content acquired rights to Iain Reid’s upcoming novel. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news.
Slated to hit shelves this September, “We Spread” follows a woman who is moved into “a unique long-term care residence where she begins to distrust her day-to-day reality” following the death of her partner. The book’s synopsis teases, “Is she succumbing to the subtly destructive effects of aging, or is she an unknowing participant in something more unsettling?”
“Hala” made its world premiere at Sundance. Women served in various department head positions and comprised 75 percent of critical below-the-line roles.
Baig signed an overall deal with Amazon Studios last year.
“The worst advice I received was to try and manufacture story ideas that were high concept in an effort to get people to read my scripts. I never really did that. It wasn’t for me,” Baig told us in a 2019 interview. “The best advice I received was from an incredible director and mentor of mine. I called her one night with a question about how to deal with others’ egos. She said, ‘Kill them with kindness.’ She was right.”