January 10, 2014 - 21:23 AMT
"Frances Ha" star Greta Gerwig to headline "Maggie’s Plan" comedy

Rebecca Miller will next direct Maggie’s Plan, a romantic comedy of manners that will star Frances Ha’s Greta Gerwig.

Miller, who scripted and helmed The Ballad Of Jack And Rose and The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee, wrote the script, based on a story by Karen Rinaldi. Moneyball’s Rachael Horovitz is producing through Specialty Films with Damon Cardasis, who partners with Miller in her upstart production shingle Round Films. Gerwig is the lead, and Miller says that she will cast several other major parts this month and shoot in the fall in New York, Deadline reported.

“It’s the story of a young woman and the joys and pitfalls of trying to make your own way in New York City,” said Miller, who searched long and hard for the right actress to anchor the film. “Greta has a very specific kind of innocent intelligence about her that made her perfect for this part. I’m so happy I found her.”

Miller, daughter of the great playwright Arthur Miller, most recently finished her second novel Jacob’s Folly, and got the idea for Maggie’s Plan from Rinaldi, an author friend. “It took me so long to write the book, and my producing partner was looking for something I could adapt. Karen had written this unpublished novel and told me about a strand of it that might make a good movie. I said, that’s what I want to direct.”