‘The Last Thing He Wanted’: Anne Hathaway May Team With ‘Mudbound’ Director Dee Rees for Joan Didion Adaptation

Now that she’s received an Oscar nomination for bringing “Mudbound” to the screen, Dee Rees will soon be on to her next project: “The Last Thing He Wanted,” an adaptation of Joan Didion‘s novel of the same name. The film will re-team Rees with producer Cassian Elwes and, if early word is to be believed, Anne Hathaway as well.

The Oscar winner would be playing Elena McMahon, a Washington Post reporter covering the 1984 presidential primaries who gets embroiled in arms-dealing conspiracy.

Didion is among the most acclaimed authors of her generation, but only one of her books has been adapted for film before: the devastating “Play It as It Lays.” Though best known for her nonfiction, like the essay collections “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” and “The White Album,” Didion has written several other novels: “Democracy,” “A Book of Common Prayer,” “Run River.” She also wrote several screenplays with her husband John Gregory Dunne, including “The Panic in Needle Park” and “A Star Is Born.”

Rees is up for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards, and Hathaway will next be seen in “Ocean’s 8.”