Astory centered on the woman behind one of the most important organizations in the U.S. and abroad is coming to the big screen. A press release has announced that Black Bicycle Entertainment’s Erika Olde is teaming up with producer Justine Ciarrocchi on “Terrible Virtue,” a film adaptation of Ellen Feldman’s novel about Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger.
Black Bicycle Entertainment and Ciarrocchi acquired the rights to the 2016 novel, and both Olde and Ciarrocchi will develop and produce the project.
“‘Terrible Virtue’ centers on the daughter of a hard-drinking, smooth-tongued free thinker and mother worn down by thirteen children, Margaret Sanger, who vowed her life would be different,” the press release reads. “Trained as a nurse, she fought for social justice beside labor organizers, anarchists, socialists, and other progressives, eventually channeling her energy to one singular cause: legalizing contraception. It was a battle that would pit her against puritanical, patriarchal lawmakers, send her to prison again and again, force her to flee to England, and ultimately change the lives of women across the country and around the world.”
Sanger was born in 1879 and died in 1966.
Ciarrocchi commented, “The scope of Sanger’s complexity, both as a revolutionary and human being, is extraordinary. I blew through Feldman’s novel with such urgency, struck by the nuance, transparency, and daring of her portrait. Her story explores the often brutal nature of activism and most audaciously, the plight of the female soul. I’m thrilled to have found such passionate partners in Erika and BBE.”
“Margaret’s story as an advocate who led the battle for birth control and eventually founding Planned Parenthood is so relevant given our recent election and today’s climate as we are once again forced to deal with basic human rights,” Olde commented. “I share a mutual passion of the subject with Justine and look forward to bringing this topic and heroic individual to the forefront.”
Planned Parenthood has revealed that since the U.S. election results were announced, approximately 72,000 of the more than 260,000 donations that have been given to the organization were made in the name vice-president-elect Mike Pence, an outspoken opponent of the org. President-elect Donald Trump has also called for defunding Planned Parenthood. According to its website, Planned Parenthood helps “prevent approximately 579,000 unintended pregnancies in a single year,” and “provides more than 270,000 Pap tests and more than 360,000 breast exams in a single year, critical services in detecting cancer.” Planned Parenthood offers many services, including STI tests — just “three percent of all Planned Parenthood health services are abortion services.”
Sonar Entertainment has optioned the rights to Jonathan Eig’s 2014 award-winning nonfiction book “The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution” for development. Sanger features prominently in the book. Audrey Wells (“Under the Tuscan Sun”) will pen the first episode of the series and executive produce.
We’re curious to see whether either of these projects address Sanger’s controversial comments in support of eugenics — not all of the trailblazer’s views were progressive.
Black Bicycle Entertainment has a number of films by and about women coming up, including Hallie Meyers-Shyer’s “Home Again” starring Reese Witherspoon, Susanna White’s “Woman Walks Ahead” starring Jessica Chastain, and Whitney Cummings’ directorial debut “The Female Brain.”
