According to Deadline, Emma Stone has signed on to star in Letters From Rosemary, a script from newcomer Nick Yarborough about the eldest sister of President John F. Kennedy and senators Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy. After displaying behavioral problems during her adolescence as a result of a mental illness that was kept secret, Rose Marie “Rosemary” Kennedy underwent a forced prefrontal lobotomy arranged by her father when she was 23. Physicians botched the procedure, which left her permanently incapacitated. The script focuses on the time leading up to the procedure and how its outcome affected the family going forward.
Steve Golin and Doug Wald of Anonymous Content, whose Spotlight took home the Best Original Screenplay Award at the Oscars this year, found the spec script on the Black List website, making Yarborough one of the luckiest guys to ever write a depressing period piece in his spare time. He might even get awards consideration of his own, along with Stone, who stands a good chance of being nominated for playing a woman with aggressive mood swings left incapacitated by misguided medicine. In fact, that kind of role checks off so many boxes necessary for an Academy Award that everyone else nominated that year probably shouldn’t even show up.