Janice Engel and James Egan join forces again for a new narrative film.
Director Janice Engel (Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins) is teaming up with Producer James Egan, Wild at Heart Films (Wild About Harry) to make the film Lillian, Next Door from an original screenplay by Tim Atkin.
Engel and Egan previously worked together on Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins which won the Audience Award at SXSW and was released in over 1,000 theaters nationwide by Magnolia Productions.
Lillian, Next Door is a dramedy about an irreverent widow and former CIA spy who shrewdly takes inventory of everything and uses off-color witty malaprops to keep others off-guard. When Lillian kindles an unlikely friendship with her young new neighbor, it pushes his relationship with his partner to the breaking point. As they
navigate the lives they’ve lived and confront the secrets of their past, they must find a way to move forward together. It’s a story of improbable friends, generations apart, who have common ground and, in a sense, create a chosen family.
“When I first read the script, it had an emotional punch that made me laugh and cry. Lillian’s character jumped out at me immediately,” said Engel. “It’s a story about improbable friends, generations apart, that challenges stereotypes. The seeming differences in their lives of secrets and lies provides shared experiences. In their common ground, they find the possibility for redemption, self-acceptance and the recognition that love is hard. But it’s still love. It’s a story about courage and standing up for truth in the face of indifference and fear. It is why I make the films I make.”
Egan founded Wild at Heart Films to create “Media that Makes a Difference.” The first project under the Wild at Heart Films banner was the critically acclaimed independent film Jackpot, winner of the John Cassavetes Spirit Award for best low-budget feature and distributed by Sony Pictures Classics.
Atkin is a military veteran who also served on the National Security Council staff at the White House, where he focused on our nation’s response to the Cuban and Haitian migration crises. Atkin, an associate producer on Complicated Order (directed by Emmie Lichtenberg), is represented by the Lynn Pleshette Literary Agency.