Topic Studios (“Leave No Trace”) has bought rights to Rachel Lyon’s debut novel “Self-Portrait With Boy” and plans to develop the project as a feature film.
Lyon will adapt her own novel. John Lyons (“Boogie Nights”), who recently signed a first-look deal with Topic Studios, has come on board to produce.
The story is set in Brooklyn in the early 1990s and tells the story of a young photographer who unintentionally captures a tragedy during a self-portrait. The choice of what to do with this devastating image haunts her as she is forced to confront the limits of her own ambition.
“Rachel’s novel is a gripping, emotionally complex ghost story about the price of creative success,” said said Ryan Heller, vice president for acquisitions and feature films. “We were instantly drawn to ways we could bring this story – and its bygone era of New York — to the big screen and are thrilled to be working with Rachel and John to do so.”
Topic Studios produced Debra Granik’s “Leave No Trace,” starring Ben Foster and Thomasin McKenzie, and political documentary “Dark Money,” from director Kimberly Reed. Upcoming projects include “On the Other Side,” the story of war correspondent Kate Webb starring Carey Mulligan; and Rodrigo Prieto’s directorial debut “Bastard,” with executive producers Martin Scorsese and Emma Tillinger Koskoff of Sikelia Productions, alongside Jordan Horowitz (“La La Land”) and Annie Marter as producers.
Lyon is represented by WME and Meredith Kaffel Simonoff at DeFiore and Company.
