Kristen Wiig is set to star in an MGM film adaptation of Chandler Baker’s thriller The Husbands, Deadline reports.
The actor and former Saturday Night Live star will also produce the movie, with Baker writing the screenplay and serving as executive producer.
The Husbands, Baker’s second novel for adults, follows a lawyer who moves with her husband to a tony Texas neighborhood where the women all hold powerful jobs and their husbands are docile and supportive. A critic for Kirkus called the novel, scheduled for publication by Flatiron on Aug. 3, “a perpetually timely page-turner that is anything but subtle.”
Wiig is best known for her comedic turns on SNL and in films such as Bridesmaids and Ghostbusters. She has also acted in dramas including All Good Things, Nasty Baby, and Hateship, Loveship.
“It felt surreal to find myself on the phone with Kristen Wiig this past fall talking about a book I had just finished writing,” Baker wrote on Instagram. “It felt stranger still to tell her, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter, that actually *I* really wanted to be the one to write the screenplay. I was so grateful when not only did she not laugh at me, but said she wanted to help however she could.”
The Husbands will be Baker’s first screenplay. There’s no word when shooting on the film will begin.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
