Greta Gerwig could have made an obscene amount of money from that much-lamented, ultimately abandoned How I Met Your Mother spinoff, and she absolutely deserves all of it. But the fact that that project fell through also means she now has the time and freedom to do whatever she wants. And what she wants is to make her solo directorial debut, free from the shackles of network suits and Joe Swanberg. (Gerwig and Swanberg co-directed the relationship drama Nights And Weekends in 2008.)
According to Deadline, Gerwig has penned a script, Lady Bird, about “a young woman’s last year spent in Sacramento,” and she is set to direct it for IAC Films. She will not appear in the film herself, and no cast has been announced yet, but we’ll presumably hear a bit more about that before it starts filming on location in Sacramento come March.
In the meantime, Gerwig will appear in the upcoming film Maggie’s Plan, along with Mike Mills‘ 20th Century Women further down the road. On the other side of the camera, she’s perhaps best known for (arguably) elevating Noah Baumbach’s scripts, having co-written one of his best films, Frances Ha, as well as brilliantly bringing the title character to life on screen. The two also collaborated in that same way on the highly anticipated Mistress America, which hits theaters next week.