Apple Original Films has landed rights to a package based on Judy Heumann’s bestselling memoir “Being Heumann,” reports Deadline.
Siân Heder, whom Apple signed to a multi-year overall deal in the wake of winning an auction for her Sundance sensation “CODA,” is adapting the film to direct. CODA will premiere in theaters and on Apple TV+ on Friday, Aug. 13.
Ali Stroker, the first actress who uses a wheelchair for mobility to appear on Broadway and the first to win a Tony for her work in “Oklahoma,” is being eyed to star, says “Deadline.”
About ‘Being Heumann’
Here’s how the memoir and upcoming film is described: From the time she contracted polio in 1949 in Brooklyn which confined her to a wheelchair, and was deemed a fire hazard at age 5 and told to stay home, Heumann has been a crusader for the rights of the disabled. The book was published last year by Beacon Press, and expands the activism of Heumann that was part of the Barack & Michelle Obama-produced documentary Crip Camp, for which Heumann won a Critics’ Choice Award for Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary. The movie will explore her efforts to plan the 504 Sit In in San Francisco, an important protest that led to standardizing rights for the disabled. She went on to a distinguished career, including serving in the Clinton Administration as the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the Department of Education.
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