'The Handmaid's Tale' Director Reed Morano Tapped to Direct Anne Frank Drama

Morano is in talks to direct 'Keeper of the Diary,' about Otto Frank's quest to find a publisher for the diary of his daughter, Anne.


Fresh off of her Emmy win for The Handmaid's Tale, director Reed Morano is eyeing another story amplifying a woman's voice, a drama about the search for a publisher of Anne Frank's diary.


Morano is in talks to direct Keeper of the Diary, about Otto Frank's quest to find a publisher for the diary his daughter, Anne, kept while in hiding from the Nazis in the World War II-era Netherlands, for Fox Searchlight. He finds an ally in Doubleday junior editor Barbara Zimmernan, who later co-founded and co-edited The New York Review of Books.


Kenneth Branagh was previously in talks to direct and star.


Fox Searchlight won Keeper of the Diary, a script by Evan Kilgore and Samel Franco, in an auction early last year. Matti Leshem and Lynn Harris are set to produce for their Weimaraner Republic Pictures shingle.


Morano's latest film, I Think We're Alone Now, screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January and was acquired for distribution by Momentum Pictures.


This year Morano's film The Rhythm Section, a thriller starring Blake Lively, suspended production while Lively recuperated from a hand injury sustained during a stunt. Paramount had originally scheduled the film for a Feb. 22, 2019 release.