A couple of weeks after last June’s historic US Supreme Court ruling in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges – which extended the right to marry to same sex couples across America – Fox 2000 announced that they had purchased the right to Jim Obergefell’s life and intended to make a movie about it. That film has now taken a step forward, with Variety reporting that Chris Weitz has been hired to write the script for the movie, which is currently called 21 Years To Midnight.
Weitz first came to prominence (alongside his brother), for writing and directing American Pie, but since then he’s helmed the likes of About A Boy, The Golden Compass and The Twilight Saga: New Moon, as well as writing Antz, Cinderella and the upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
The movie will follows Obergefell’s story, which most famously saw him him marry John Arthur in Maryland (where same sex marriage was legal) in 2013, three months before his death. However the the state of Ohio, where he lived, refused to list Obergefell as Arthur’s spouse on the death certificate, and so he sued. The fight went via various appeals courts, who disagreed over whether denying same sex couples the right to marry was unconstituional. Eventually is was reviewed by the Supreme Court, who gave a landmark ruling on the issue.
Its not clear whether Weitz will also direct the movie, but it seems likely. It’s also not knows when it might shoot.
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