Ron Howard to direct comedy The Emperors Children

When you think of the movies the director Ron Howard usually does, comedies don’t really come to mind, but that is about to change with his new film The Emperors Children. The good folks over at movieweb.com give us this:

Universal Pictures has bought the rights to the Claire Messud novel, The Emperor’s Children; Imagine Entertainment will co-produce.

Ron Howard is looking to direct the comedy set in New York in the months before and following September 11, 2001. Variety reports it centers around three Brown University students, raised in upper-crust surroundings and expected to do something important; they hit 30 and struggle to fulfill that promise

So we don’t really think of Ron Howard as a comedy director but the ones he has done have been pretty enjoyable, like Edtv, Parenthood, Night Shift and Cocoon. Do I think this movie will be good? Probably yes. With the money the Universal should be willing to invest, a talented director like Ron Howard and an interesting plot about how spoiled rich kids are affected by 911 this is almost sure to be a winner.

The casting will be key, it would be a nice change if they used all unknowns for the roles, bring in a new crop of talent to let us really fall into the characters and the story. I’m not sure if this is even really done anymore with big directors with big studios…but it should be, they are the ones who can afford the risk.

Either way though I think this movie will be successful, there are just too many good things going for it.