Sam Taylor-Johnson is to follow her blockbusting adaptation of erotic thriller Fifty Shades of Grey with a film about the notorious Chappaquiddick incident in 1969, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The film will dramatise the incident in which Mary Jo Kopechne, a 28-year-old former staffer for Robert Kennedy, drowned after Ted Kennedy apparently lost control of his car on a bridge over a pond on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts.
Kennedy survived the crash, yet failed to report the accident, leaving Kopechne’s body, which was trapped underneath the car, to be discovered by authorities the next morning. He was ultimately prosecuted and given a two-month suspended sentence for leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury. He subsequently denied he was driving drunk. The notoriety surrounding Kennedy’s behaviour following the accident is considered the central reason his presidential ambitions were derailed, and that he never achieved the stellar political success of his brothers.
Taylor-Johnson opted not to return to Fifty Shades for its planned sequels, despite the $570m worldwide box-office take, after supposedly clashing with the books’ author, EL James, during production. However the success of Fifty Shades has put Taylor-Johnson in the Hollywood premier league, and Chappaquiddick is likely to consolidate her position.
