Allison Janney, Laura Dern to Star in Dark Comedy Directed by Tate Taylor

'Breaking News in Yuba County,' with a Black List script by Amanda Idoko, is being financed by Stuart Ford's AGC Studios.

Allison Janney and Laura Dern will star in Tate Taylor’s Breaking News in Yuba County, which is being fully financed by Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios.

In the black comedy, written by Amanda Idoko, whose screenplay was a 2017 Black List script, Janney will play a woman who secretly buries her husband after he dies of a heart attack when she catches him in bed with another woman — and who then finds she’s becoming a celebrity amid the search for her husband, who is presumed to be missing. Dern will play her sister, a local news anchor who is desperate to get the real story.

Taylor, who previously directed Janney in The Help, said of the project, “The moment I read Amanda’s dark and brilliant script I knew it was the one for Allison. She and I have been searching since The Help for something big to do. So have Laura and I. It’s a perfect story of debauchery and chaos, and I’m delighted to have Stuart and his AGC team on board as our backers.”

Producing the film, which is slated to begin filming in mid-2019, are Taylor; Jake Gyllenhaal and Riva Marker via their Nine Stories banner; Franklin Leonard’s The Black List; and John Norris (The Help). On board as executive producers are AGC chairman and CEO Ford, AGC head of film Greg Shapiro, Nine Stories’ Annie Marter and Idoko.

The deal was brokered by CAA and Endeavor Content and negotiated by vp, legal and business affairs Anant Tamirisa on behalf of AGC; WME and Bloom Hergott on behalf of Nine Stories; CAA on behalf of the producers and Taylor; the Gersh Agency and Thruline Entertainment on behalf of Janney; and CAA and Untitled Entertainment on behalf of Dern.

AGC Studios, which Ford, the former CEO of IM Global, launched in 2008, will be offering the project for sale at next week’s AFM through AGC International, its sales and distribution arm.