Nick Hornby (About a Boy, Brooklyn) is writing the script and Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer, Gifted) will direct This Above All, based on the life of Megan Phelps-Roper. Phelps-Roper is the granddaughter of the Westboro Baptist Church founder and the film will detail her upbringing as well as the dramatic change in her beliefs that led to her exit from the Church. Hornby’s adapting the script based on Phelps-Roper’s upcoming memoir and The New Yorker article by Adrian Chen.
This Above All is a River Road and Condé Nast Entertainment production, with Webb, Bruna Papandrea, Reese Witherspoon, Dawn Ostroff, Jeremy Steckler, and Bill Pohlad producing.
“Megan’s extraordinary story says so much about so many things in contemporary America, and I’m really excited about this project,” stated writer Hornby. “I’m looking forward to working with the brilliant Marc Webb, CNÉ and with my friends Reese Witherspoon, Bruna Papandrea and River Road, with whom I enjoyed such a good relationship during the making of Wild.”
“When we read The New Yorker article about Megan’s incredible journey, we knew that it was the perfect fit for CNÉ’s film group, which focuses on compelling and timely stories from Condé Nast’s vast library of publications,” said Ostroff, president of CNÉ, and Steckler, CNÉ’s executive vice president of feature films. “Marc and Nick both have a powerful vision of how to tell Megan’s story and we are very happy to be partnered with Reese, Bruna and Bill, who understand the importance of bringing this project to the big screen.”
Megan Phelps-Roper Details: “As the granddaughter of the famous founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, Phelps-Roper grew up espousing the teachings of her family, preaching God’s power and damning those who sinned. She became one of the most powerful voices on social media for Westboro, where she used both a picket sign and her Twitter handle to doggedly protest everything from cultural events to funerals, until her ongoing conversations with opponents over Twitter led her to question her belief system. With her mind open to a different way of seeing the world, she and her younger sister made the difficult decision to leave the Church—and be disowned by their family—in order to find a life governed by love.”
