Saturday night was the SXSW premiere of the first ever movie written and directed by Helen Hunt. It’s called Then She Found Me and she adapted the screenplay from a book by Elinor Lipman. Judging from the audience response it got here in Austin, her career as a director is off to a great start. In fact, it sounds like she’s already planning another one.
This afternoon at a press conference, Helen talked about Then She Found Me as well as what else she’s planning. We’ll have a full report from the press conference soon, but in the mean time, here’s what she has to say about her followup project to Then She Found Me.
When asked if she’d direct again Helen responded, “Yeah I wrote another movie, this time an original idea.” Helen thinks it’s important to find what it is in yourself that you’re good at, and she says of this second film, “I have a little pattern that I could see in myself having done two now.” As for when we might see it, the movie’s still in the very early stages, she hasn’t even finished the script yet. But she says, “I write really detailed outlines. The outline was forever, the first draft was a breeze, and now I’m at the worst part where I have to actually rewrite it and actually think, and I don’t know what to do.”
Unfortunately she’s hesitant to drop many details on what the film will be about, but she did compare it to her current movie saying, “It’s similar in tone in that it’s a comedy about some things that are funny and some things that are not funny.” With Then She Found Me she was aiming for something in the vein of As Good as It Gets, and tonally at least, she gets there. If people show up for Then She Found Me when it’s finally released, and she manages to get this second project off the ground, Helen Hunt may end up with a bright future as a writer director.
Check back later in the week for more from Helen Hunt, as she goes in depth on her directorial debut at Austin’s South By Southwest fest.
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