Allison Janney, Laura Dern to Star in Tate Taylor’s ‘Breaking News in Yuba County’

By Dave McNary

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Allison Janney and Laura Dern are starring as sisters in director Tate Taylor’s dark comedy “Breaking News in Yuba County.”

Taylor, whose credits include “The Help” and “The Girl on the Train,” will direct from the 2017 Black List script by Amanda Idoko. He’s also producing, along with Jake Gyllenhaal and Riva Marker via their Nine Stories banner (“Stronger”), Franklin Leonard’s The Black List, and John Norris (“The Help”).

AGC Studios, launched earlier this year by former IM Global CEO Stuart Ford, will fully finance “Breaking News in Yuba County.” The executive producers are Ford, AGC’s head of film Greg Shapiro, and Idoko. The movie will go into production in mid-2019.

AGC International, the international sales and distribution arm of AGC Studios, is selling “Breaking News in Yuba County at the American Film Market, which opens Oct. 31 in Santa Monica, Ca.

Janney will portray a pencil pusher who catches her husband in bed with another woman, which causes him to die of a heart attack. So she buries his body and takes advantage of the growing celebrity status that comes from having a missing husband — but finds herself in over her head, dodging cops and criminals, all while trying to keep the truth from her sister (Dern), a local news anchor who’s desperate for a story.

The project re-teams Taylor and Janney, who played the mother of Emma Stone’s character in “The Help.” Janney won the Academy Award for best supporting actress this year for her portrayal of LaVona Golden in “I, Tonya.”

“The moment I read Amanda’s dark and brilliant script, I knew it was the one for Allison,” Taylor said. “She and I have been searching since ‘The Help’ for something big to do. So have Laura and I. It’s a perfect story of debauchery and chaos, and I’m delighted to have Stuart and his AGC team onboard as our backers.”

Dern won her fourth Golden Globe and a Primetime Emmy Award for her role as Renata Klein in the HBO miniseries “Big Little Lies.” She received Oscar nominations for “Wild” and “Rambling Rose.”

The deal was brokered by CAA and Endeavor Content, and negotiated by Anant Tamirisa on behalf of AGC; WME and Bloom Hergott on behalf of Nine Stories; CAA on behalf of the producers and Taylor; the Gersh Agency and Thruline Entertainment on behalf of Janney; and CAA and Untitled Entertainment on behalf of Dern.