Rachel McAdams has signed on to star in a film adaptation of the beloved Judy Blume novel, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Abby Ryder Fortson, who starred as Scott Lang’s daughter in the Ant-Man movies, will play the title character. It will be the 12-year-old Fortson’s first lead role. McAdams, who also stars in the Marvel movies as Dr. Christine Palmer in Doctor Strange, will play Margaret’s mother.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. was published in 1970 and follows Margaret Simon, a sixth-grader who goes on a quest to find a single religion because she is the daughter of a Christian mother and Jewish father. The book takes place during her move from one city to another and also shows Margaret confronting puberty. Casting for the rest of the Simon family will be announced soon, reports Entertainment Weekly. In the book, Margaret’s paternal grandmother, Sylvia Simon, is also a major character.
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“Margaret and I are really similar,” Fortson told EW. “I love her. She’s so goofy and awesome. She’s all heart and love and just wants to have friends and figure out who she is.” Fortson began acting in 2013, appearing in episodes of The Mindy Project and Transparent. Aside from the Ant-Man movies, she also starred in The Whispers, Togetherness, and Trolls: The Beat Goes On!.
“My readers are always fantasy-casting my books, but I’ve never done that,” Blume also told EW. “But you know it when you see it, and Abby is a natural. And I’m so excited that Margaret got a funny, sexy, sassy mom in Rachel.” Blume has resisted granting producers the film rights to the book for years, but she eventually got a call from Kelly Fremon Craig and James L. Brooks, who previously worked together on The Edge of Seventeen, a film Blume loved. “This is a team who cares about the book and understands it — I thought, let’s do this while I’m still around to enjoy it,” the 83-year-old author told EW.
The film will be produced by Lionsgate and production is set to start in April, and Blume hopes to be part of the filmmaking process. But everyone understands how important Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. is for readers. “This book is important because some girls don’t get the chance to talk to anyone about their body and what happens to them when it changes, and this book tells them it’s going to be okay, you’re normal, it just matters who you are inside,” Fortson said.
McAdams is now working on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, scheduled for release on March 25, 2022. Last year, she starred in Netflix’s musical comedy Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, opposite Will Ferrell. McAdams has an Oscar nomination for her supporting role in the 2015 Best Picture winner Spotlight.
