Dee Rees To Helm 'The Last Thing He Wanted'

Director Dee Rees 

LOS ANGELES – September 27, 2017: Award-winning independent filmmaker Dee Rees (Mudbound, Pariah) will direct the best-selling 1996 Joan Didion political thriller The Last Thing He Wanted from publisher Alfred A. Knopf.  Elevated’s Cassian Elwes (Dallas Buyers Club, Lee Daniels’ The Butler) optioned the book last year from Didion to develop it in partnership with Rees following their incredible collaboration on Mudbound, which premiered to standing ovations in Sundance and at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Marco Villalobos will pen the screenplay which is a political thriller in the vein of the parallax view about a Washington Post journalist thrown unexpectedly into the dangerous world of arms dealing. Prolific production and financing house, The Fyzz Facility has come onboard to develop the project with an eye to co-financing the film once the project is ready as part of their first-look deal with Elwes.

Mudbound, which Netflix will release in November, is set in the post-WWII South, it tells the story of two families pitted against a barbaric social hierarchy and an unrelenting landscape as they simultaneously fight the battle at home and the battleground abroad.  Mudbound explores the themes of friendship, heritage and the unending struggle for and against the land. 

"This work is one of my favorite Joan Didion novels and is a brilliant and layered piece of fiction,” said Rees.  “I am forever attracted to interesting, unexpected characters and Didion is one of the greatest masters of the form.  I’m so excited to be able to interpret this literary masterpiece.”

“As a longtime admirer of Joan Didion, we couldn’t be more excited to bring one of her most compelling works of fiction to life.  And Dee’s take on this piece has a unique tension and depth,” added Elevated’s Cassian Elwes. “The combination of the two powerhouse creatives will make for an incredible film and I look forward to continuing my work with Rees and The Fyzz.”

Rees’ Pariah debuted at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and went on to win many awards including the “John Cassavetes Award” at the Independent Spirit Awards, and the Gotham Award for “Best Breakthrough Director”. Rees wrote and directed the HBO film Bessie (2015) which won 4 Emmy awards including "Best Limited Series or Movie”.

Rees is represented by WME.

The Fyzz Facility and Elevated have collaborated on a number of films, most recently: Justin Kelly’s JT Leroy starring Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern and Victor Levin’s comedy Destination Wedding starring Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder – both of which are in post-production.