Whiplash star Miles Teller is teaming with Warm Bodies and 50/50 helmer Jonathan Levine for Home is Burning, an adaptation of author Dan Marshall’s upcoming memoir. Set to be published in October through Flatiron Books, Home is Burning is officially described as follows:
Dan’s mom has always had cancer. First diagnosed when he was only ten years old, she was the model of resilience throughout his childhood, fighting her disease with tenacity and a mouth foul enough to make a sailor blush. But just as she faces a relapse, her husband, a successful businessman and devoted father, is diagnosed with ALS. He is told that, in a few months’ time, he will be unable to walk, eat or breathe on his own. Dan, a recent college craduate living the good life in Los Angeles, has no choice but to return home to help.
Reinstated in his parents’ basement (in one of the only nonMormon homes in a Salt Lake City subdivision), Dan is reunited with his siblings. His older sister Tiffant is resentful, having stayed closer to home to bear the brunt of their mother’s illness. Younger brother Greg comes to lend a hand, giving up a journalism career and evenings cruising Chicago gay bars. Younger Sister Michelle is a sullen teenager experimenting with drinking and flirting with her 35 year old soccer coach. And baby sister Chelsea, the oddest duck in a family of misfits, can only think about dance. Together they form Team Terminal, going to battle their parents’ illnesses and cracking plenty of jokes along the way.
As Dan steps into his role as caregiver, wheelchair wrangler, and sibling referee, he watches pieces of his previous life slip away, and comes to realize that you don’t get to choose when it’s time to grow up.
Teller can soon be seen starring as Reed Richards in 20th Century Fox’s Marvel adaptation Fantastic Four. Levine, meanwhile, will release a still-untitled Christmas comedy in theaters November 25 with a cast that includes Seth Rogen, Anthony Mackie, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lizzy Caplan.
Home is Burning is set up at New Line Cinema with Michael Disco and Andrea Johnston overseeing.
