Greensburg native’s book to be released as feature film
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
With the crumbling remains of a mansion 40 miles outside of Pittsburgh as her gothic backdrop, author Kelly Braffet earned acclaim for her 2005 novel, “Josie and Jack.”
Now, the story moves to the big screen. Adapting the screenplay with first-time director Sarah Lancaster, Ms. Braffet, a 1994 Greensburg Salem High School graduate, will present the emotionally tortured teen siblings in a new dimension.
“The film focuses on their relationship,” Ms. Braffet said. “They really have nobody but each other, and the intensity of that relationship is what helps them carry on out in the world.”
Ms. Lancaster contacted her about adapting the book in late 2015.
“Having read the book years ago, she sort of carried it around with her in her head and said it was something she wanted to turn into a feature film,” Ms. Braffet said.
The project is produced by Mountain Men Films in association with the Komack Company. It’s in postproduction with the intent of introducing it early in 2019 on the festival circuit. Much of it was shot on Staten Island, which Ms. Braffet said made a surprisingly close stand-in for Western Pennsylvania.
The movie stars Olivia DeJonge (“The Visit”) and Alex Neustaedter (“A-X-L,” “Colony”) as a brother and sister home-schooled through high school by their unstable college professor father (William Fichtner). Forced to live together with few outside contacts, they form a relationship that’s perhaps a bit too close.
Although it’s not young adult fiction, per se, the author said her aim was, “much more ‘Mildred Pierce’ than ‘The Fault in Our Stars.’ But I hear particularly from young women about it.”
In her 2005 book review of “Josie and Jack” for The New York Times, Sarah Vowell wrote, “A first-person book lives or dies by the person telling the story, and Braffet uses Josie’s voice to impressive effect.
“What would a drinknumbed, brother-addicted teenager with a dead mother and a moody father, born in one of the grayer bits of the country, sound like? In Braffet’s hands, she sounds blank — in a good way.”
Ms. Braffet is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and has a master of fine arts degree from Columbia University. Her other works include “Save Yourself” and “Last Seen Leaving.” She is married to writer Owen King, son of best-selling author Stephen King.