Danny Strong to make directorial debut with ‘Salinger’s War’

The very private life of J.D. Salinger is about to get the biopic treatment.

Actor and screenwriter Danny Strong is set to make his directorial debut with a movie on the life of the Catcher and the Rye author called Salinger’s War. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Strong optioned Kenneth Slawensk’s book JD Salinger: A Life and wrote the script on spec himself.

The film will follow Salinger’s life in the early 1940’s, as he tries to establish his now critically revered literary career. Salinger went off to war during WWII just as his career begins to take off, and the film will explore how his experiences at war changed him and shaped his writing voice. Salinger published Catcher and the Rye, his most famous novel, in 1951.

While the film will mark Strong’s first directorial effort, he has amassed a number or screenwriting credits, writing last year’s The Butler and is currently working on the scripts for the last two Hunger Games movies, as noted by . He also penned the script for HBO’s Game Change, for which he won an Emmy. As an actor, Strong has had runs on shows like Mad Men, Justified and Gilmore Girls.