Melissa McCarthy to play novelist, literary forger Lee Israel

American actor Melissa

McCarthy (left) will star in Fox Searchlight’s adaptation of Lee Israel’s memoir, Can You Ever Forgive Me? with The Diary of a Teenage Girl director Marielle Heller attached to helm.

The dark comedy will begin shooting early next year. Heller will direct from a script by Nicole Holofcener. Producers are Anne Carey and Amy Nauiokas of Archer Gray, partnered with Israel’s friend and longtime confidant David Yarnell, reported Variety.

McCarthy will portray Israel, who made her living in the 1970s and ‘80s writing profiles of stars such as Katharine Hepburn and Tallulah Bankhead, cosmetics executive Estee Lauder, and journalist Dorothy Kilgallen. When she was no longer able to get published because she has fallen out of step with current tastes, she turned to deception, abetted by her loyal friend Jack, and began selling letters that she had forged from deceased writers and actors. When the forgeries started to raise suspicion, she turned to stealing the actual letters from library archives and sold them. In 1993, Israel pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport stolen property and served six months under house arrest. She died in 2014.

FOX SEARCHLIGHT’S ADAPTATION OF LEE ISRAEL’S MEMOIR, ‘CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?’ WILL BEGIN SHOOTING EARLY NEXT YEAR. THE PROJECT WILL BE HELMED BY DIRECTOR MARIELLE HELLER

PHOTO: CHARLES SYKES/INVISION/AP