Its reputation for prestige television established, Netflix is investing even more attention to its original films division. The streaming platform debuted its Idris Elba vehicle Beasts Of No Nation at the Toronto International Film Festival, with Brad Pitt’s War Machine and Adam Sandler’s four-film bonanza yet to come. Now, according to Deadline, the platform is looking to produce a septuagenarian romance that would reunite Jane Fonda and Robert Redford.
Netflix is “in discussions” to produce an adaptation of Kent Haruf’s novel Our Souls At Night, with Redford and Fonda as widowed neighbors in small-town Colorado who decide to platonically spend nights in the same bed to help stave off loneliness. Deadline reports the film will have a Bridges Of Madison County vibe, so tell your mom to grab some tissues before she watches it.
Redford and Fonda previously co-starred as temperamental newlyweds in 1967’s Barefoot In The Park and as a plucky reporter and her cowboy subject in 1979’s The Electric Horseman. Our Souls At Night would round out their romantic trilogy, and prove it’s possible to have romantic chemistry at any age.
Netflix is investing a lot into its original films in the hopes of producing “theatrical quality” content; the platform is apparently looking to acquire even more properties at TIFF this year, and the plan is to give these films limited theatrical runs in addition to streaming. And with subject matter ranging from Sandler humor to contemplative late-in-life romance, the site is clearly trying to appeal to a diverse audience while also keeping all those Grace And Frankie fans happy.
Redford is set to produce Our Souls At Night, with Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber penning the script. It’s an interesting screenwriting choice, as the duo are known for younger-skewing romantic fare like (500) Days Of Summer, The Spectacular Now, The Fault In Our Stars, and Paper Towns. This time around they’ll once again be dramatizing a relationship in its early days, albeit with characters a few years removed from high school.