Don’t call it a Christmas miracle, but it seems Frank Capra’s classic holiday tearjerker “It’s a Wonderful Life” is getting a new life thanks to the Russo Brothers and “Juror #2” screenwriter Jonathan Abrams.
In an interview with GQ, Abrams told the publication he’s developing a biopic on the life of star James Stewart set during the making of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and that he last year sold the script to the Russos’ AGBO banner.
“I’ve completed the script and we’re putting it together,” Abrams said. “It’s a biopic about the making of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ but really about Jimmy Stewart working through his PTSD upon returning home from World War II where he was a bomber pilot, and how he worked through it by playing George Bailey.”
IndieWire reached out to AGBO for comment, but received no response.
Capra, the film‘s director, had also experienced WWII, having shot many informational films in assistance with the war effort. His work was well documented in Mark Harris’ history of that period and subsequent docu-series, “Five Came Back.”
“Capra’s a key figure in the script, so yeah I read that,” Abrams said of using Harris’ book for research. “You know, it’s a love letter to Hollywood and to the greatest holiday movie ever made and to definitely one of the greatest actors that ever was. It’s a story that I love, and again, I’m just so thrilled to be able to do this and get paid to do it and hopefully we’ll be able to get that film made too.”
While there’s no guarantee his Stewart biopic makes it to the screen, having “Juror #2” get awards attention has raised his stature in the industry.
“The funny thing about this business is I’ve been working professionally as a screenwriter for, geez, 14 years. So I’ve made a living at it, writing movies and television pilots that didn’t get made, and that’s okay, and then this one finally does,” Abrams told GQ. “It’s a very weird existence to get paid to make things that no one really ever sees outside of, you know, the people that were developing it with you. But this project has given me a fair amount of credibility, which is really cool.”
