While her story is incredibly tragic, Anne Frank’s legacy has been immense. Her diary has become an entry point to the atrocities of the Holocaust for generations of people, with the teen’s firsthand tale a powerful and unique document, detailing the two years she spent hidden in an Amsterdam attic. It’s now been announced that new new big screen version is in the works, which David Mamet will write and direct.
The new film, which Disney has bought the rights to, is based on the diary, a stage play by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, as well as Mamet’s own original take of the material, which Variety suggests would reframe the story as a young girl’s right of passage.
Mamet may seem a strange choice for the film, as he’s usually thought of for loud plays and movies filled with people shouting and swearing at each other, such as Glengarry Glen Ross. However his career has actually been far more varied than public perception would suggest, ranging from adapations of Uncle Vanya and The Winslow Boy to the legal drama The Verdict.
It’s also true that with the Anne Frank estate involved in the film, they certainly wouldn’t have agreed if they didn’t think Mamet would treat the material with respect. The writer/director is currently working on the script for the Anne Frank film, although there’s no news on when the film might get made.