Meg Ryan’s slow return back to showbusiness will now include a stop at the director’s chair. The Sleepless in Seattle star has signed on to direct her first feature, Ithica. She has enlisted Sam Shepard and Melanie Griffith to co-star.
The package was snapped up by The Exchange, which will sell it to prospective buyers at the European Film Market during next month’s Berlin Film Festival, notes Variety.
Ithica will be executive produced by Ryan’s You’ve Got Mail co-star Tom Hanks under his Playone banner with Gary Goetzman. It is based on William Saroyan’s The Human Comedy and was written by Band of Brothers’ Erik Jendresen.
According to Deadline, the plot focuses on a 14-year-old boy growing up in 1942 California. His older brother goes to fight in the war, leaving him to care for his widowed mother, his sister and a younger brother. Ryan will star, along with her son, Jack Quaid.
“Ithaca is a deceptively simple story, by turns stark and lyrical,” Ryan said in a statement. “It’s sometimes shockingly unsentimental and yet, by some little miracle, never cynical. I am delighted to no end to bring a tale of such vibrancy and heart to the screen.”
Ryan took several years off from doing movies, only resurfacing last year to do episodes of Web Therapy. In October, she did sign on to do an NBC comedy pilot.
image: Showtime/CBS