American Dreamers: The title sounds like a sweeping epic, a grand tale of love, struggle, war and politics. In reality, it’s a book about the Reader’s Digest.
But while you might scoff at the idea that a movie about the founders of one of the world’s more sedate publications could possibly be exciting, you haven’t heard their full story.
Husband and wife producing/starring team David Duchovny and Tea Leoni have, and now they want to share it with the world. They’ve optioned the rights to Peter Canning’s tome, which chronicles the mad lives of DeWitt and Lila Acheson Wallace.
Canning used to be a Reader’s Digest editor, so he knows a thing or two about the pair and their idealistic goals that became increasingly compromised after the Second World War. What was supposed to be simply an enlightening read turned into a mouthpiece for the conservative agenda, as the couple allowed the CIA and FBI to use it. Plus the pair became rich, bored and jaded, losing themselves in their wealth (you might call them the Paris Hiltons of the printed page).
“This is what happened to their American dream, when it got filtered through the right wing," Leoni blabbed to Variety. "They were manipulated by a system that was so much bigger than they were. The wealthier they got, the more vulnerable they became.”
Canning will be consulting on the film, but the pair is looking for a writer to adapt the book, which the author nearly didn’t get to publish. Looks like the controversy’s going to be stirred up again….
