Robin Givens and Ashley Williams are stepping behind the camera for Lifetime. Each actress is set to make her small screen directorial debut with films for the network. Set to launch this summer, both projects are part of the network’s “Ripped from the Headlines” slate and inspired by the books of true crime author Ann Rule. Variety broke the news.
Based on Rule’s collection “Empty Promises,” Givens will helm “A Murder to Remember.” The pic centers on a couple whose one-year anniversary camping trip “turns deadly for the husband, leaving the wife alone in the wilderness. When she accepts help from another camper, she ends up putting her life in his hands, but she may end up needing protection from him,” the source details. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” alumna Amber Benson penned the script.
“Riverdale,” “Boomerang” and “Head of the Class” are among Givens’ acting credits.
Williams will direct “Practice to Deceive,” a mystery penned by Christina Ray (“Creeped Out”). The film “sees a small island community turned upside down when a local businessman is found dead the day after Christmas” and follows “an investigation into his death that looks at everyone in his life from neighbors to his wife to his best friend.
As an actress, Williams’ credits include “The Jim Gaffigan Show” and “How I Met Your Mother.” She’s set to star as a butcher in “Meats,” Pamela Fryman’s feature based on Williams’ short of the same name.
“The truth was, I’ve always wanted to direct,” Williams wrote in a guest post for Women and Hollywood. “Years of being directed by (mostly) men who were telling stories meant (mostly) for women had worn on me. In recent years as an actress, my ideas on set for fixing a glaring plot hole or an uneconomical blocking choice were always met with a raised eyebrow and then, seconds later, ‘She’s got a good idea, here, guys.’ For the last decade I hadn’t wrapped a job without the director hugging me and saying, ‘You should be doing my job.’
Williams acknowledged, “It wasn’t just positive experiences that ran through my mind. The unsettling reality of self-doubt — and the men who contributed to it — quickly crept in. ‘Why don’t you stick to wearing your bikini…?’ the cameraman had said when I expressed curiosity about a camera lens in my teens. Whenever I’d considered doing anything behind the camera, I always shied away because of what I call the How-Dare-You Factor. You’re an actress. Maybe a producer, as long as you stay easy to work with. How dare you think you can do someone else’s job, especially one that requires such a commanding vision, and especially one where there are plenty of people doing it successfully already?” she recalled.
“A Murder to Remember” and “Practice to Deceive” are just two of five “Ripped from the Headlines” projects in development at Lifetime. As part of the network’s Broader Focus Initiative, “four out of the five directors of these films are women, and three out of the five films were written by women,” the source notes. Head over to Variety to read about the other films.
