Steve James Teaming With Martin Scorsese For Documentary Involving Roger Ebert’s Memoir

This is the stuff cinematic dreams are made of.

As his latest directorial outing, the documentary known as Head Games nears its release in limited fashion on September 21 (see it, it’s fantastic. We’ll have a review in a couple of weeks), director and documentary giant Steve James has just found his next project.

Roger Ebert, whose brilliant and moving memoir ‘Life Itself’ is now available in paperback, has revealed that the book has been optioned for a documentary with James at the helm, and the team of Steven Zallian and even Martin Scorsese, who is aboard as an executive producer.

I’ve read some of the memoir recently, and it’s both a must-read for cinephiles and fans of Ebert, and also seems like a perfect project for James to back. He’s arguably America’s greatest documentarian, and with Ebert as a staunch proponent of his work, particularly Hoop Dreams, he says his hopes are high. Scorsese on board as a producer makes the film all the more enticing, and at this point, this is not only one of the most interesting documentaries coming down the pipeline, but this writer in particular finds it tough to come up with a film, in general, that is as appealing or as enticing as this collection of giants.

This is all that’s really known about the project, but expect wall to wall coverage as more is available.

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