In a press release:

BROAD GREEN PICTURES DEVELOPING

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING NOVEL ‘ORPHAN TRAIN’

INTO MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

Academy Award Nominee Michael London Producing;

Emmy Award Nominee Christopher Monger Adapting

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 14, 2015) – Broad Green Pictures will adapt Christina Baker Kline’s bestselling novel Orphan Train into a major motion picture. Academy Award nominee Michael London and Janice Williams of Groundswell Productions (Trumbo, Milk) will produce the film. Award-winning screenwriter Christopher Monger (Temple Grandin, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain) will pen the script. Published in 2013, Orphan Train has enjoyed phenomenal success and captured audiences around the world. The critically-acclaimed novel has been praised by multiple media outlets including USA Today, Publisher’s Weekly and Huffington Post; sold more than two million copies in print; been published in 35 countries and has spent over 100 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list, including five weeks at #1.

Between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from cities on the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by pure luck. Inspired by these little-known events in American history, Orphan Train weaves together the stories of Vivian Daly, a 91-year-old Irish immigrant who as a child was shipped from New York City to Minnesota on one of thousands of ‘orphan trains’ and Molly Ayer, a 17-year-old who is on the verge of aging out of the foster care system in present-day Maine. An unlikely friendship develops between the two women when Molly is “hired” to help Vivian clean out her attic as required community service, and soon discovers the parallels in their lives as outsiders, exposing a secret which has haunted Vivian her entire life.

Daniel Hammond, Chief Creative Officer at Broad Green Pictures said “Orphan Train is a poignant story with historical significance; it educates and inspires as it touches upon universal themes of family, friendship, loss, identity, and the meaning of home. We are huge fans of the novel and look forward to bringing the story to the big screen.”

“I’m thrilled to be partnering with Broad Green on Christina Baker Kline’s beloved book,” said London. “It is a rare gift to get to tell both an untold chapter in American history and a contemporary drama about a teenage girl and an elderly woman creating family together. I’ve seldom been so moved by a novel and I’m enormously excited about the challenge of living up to Christina’s book and its rightfully huge audience.”

Asher Goldstein and Shary Shirazi will oversee the project for Broad Green Pictures.

Jerry Kalajian of Intellectual Property Group, Geri Thoma of Writers House and attorney Robert A. Strent handled on behalf of the author. WME represented London and Monger. Monger was also represented by Rick Genow at Stone Meyer and Neda Niroumand at Niroumand Management. Christopher Tricarico, EVP, Business & Legal Affairs and General Counsel and Goldstein, Vice President, Development & Co-Productions handled for Broad Green.

 

About Broad Green Pictures

Broad Green Pictures is a feature film financing, production and distribution company founded by Gabriel and Daniel Hammond in 2014. The studio distributes both specialty and wide release films from in-house development and production as well as acquisitions and co-productions.

Broad Green is a fully-integrated movie studio providing filmmakers with unparalleled development support, production infrastructure, and marketing resources to execute their vision from script to screen. Through collaborative partnerships with both rising talent and established filmmakers, Broad Green shares incredible stories with the widest possible audiences, pushing boundaries and taking creative risks. The studio’s upcoming slate includes The Infiltrator, Brain on Fire, I Smile Back and The Dark Horse, as well as Terrence Malick’s Knight of Cups, Voyage of Time and his untitled project starring Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara and Michael Fassbender. Previously released films include the critically acclaimed 99 Homes,A Walk in the Woods, Learning to Drive and Samba.

Source: ©2015 Broad Green Pictures. All Rights Reserved.