EXCLUSIVE: Monarch Media, 11x Primetime Emmy winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Point Grey Pictures, Lylas Pictures and Giant Ant Films are teaming to bring Sarah Leavitt’s graphic novel Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me, to the big screen as a feature-length animated film.
Along with Louis-Dreyfus, the cast includes Abbi Jacobson, Bryan Cranston, Samira Wiley, Beanie Feldstein, Seth Rogen, Wanda Sykes, Bowen Yang, Pamela Adlon and Sarah Silverman.
In Tangles, when Alzheimer’s disease begins to strip away her mother’s vibrant personality, a headstrong young woman is forced to return to her oddball family in the conservative small town she recently fled in order to care for her. She quickly realizes she must accept the cruel and warped reality of the disease – and the imperfect beauty of her family – in order to become the daughter they need.
Leavitt adapted her novel for film along with Trev Renney and Leah Nelson.
Giant Ant Co-Founder Leah Nelson is directing. Producers include Vicky Patel, Steve Barnett and Alan Powell through Monarch Media, Alex McAtee, James Weaver and Madeline Blair through Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s Point Grey Pictures, Leah Nelson and Ross Murray through Giant Ant Films and Lauren Miller Rogen, Jen Ray and Sophie Hoegh through LYLAS Pictures, and Louis-Dreyfus.
Patel, Rogen and Miller Rogen are longtime Alzheimer’s activists, having been affected by the disease in very personal ways. Patel’s late father was diagnosed with the disease in 2003, inspiring her to become one of the nation’s leading fundraisers for brain science research. She was honored with the Alzheimer’s Foundation’s Jerome H. Stone Philanthropy Award, one of the organization’s highest honors.
Miller Rogen lost her grandmother, grandfather, and mother to the disease. After her mother was diagnosed with younger-onset Alzheimer’s at age 55, Miller Rogen and her husband founded Hilarity for Charity (HFC), a national non-profit organization that cares for families impacted by Alzheimer’s disease, inspires the next generation of Alzheimer’s advocates, and leads a nationwide brain health education effort for young people. To date, HFC has raised $23M to support family caregivers, brain health education, and prevention research. The organization has granted over 427K hours of in-home care relief to unpaid, family caregivers of those with Alzheimer’s or a related dementia.
“Everyone involved cares deeply about this story and, in many cases, brings personal experiences that allow us to be brave and authentic as we make a dark comedy about this merciless disease,” says Nelson. “Not only are our cast members the funniest human beings on the planet, they are also the most thoughtful and caring, and have brought so much heart into their portrayals of these characters. We’ve cried and laughed until we cried at every recording. So far, it has been surreal and I’m so excited to bring it into animated life.”
“When we founded Monarch a few years ago it was with this type of project in mind,” adds Patel: “a film that address a difficult subject like Alzheimer’s in a way that takes away some of the fear of the disease while also showing the love, light, and levity that never really goes away. To have Seth and Lauren as partners on this, with their immense personal and professional experience is incredibly fulfilling.”
UTA Independent Film Group and CAA Media Finance arranged financing for the film and co-represent the pic’s global distribution rights.
Louis-Dreyfus is repped by CAA and Latham & Watkins. Rogen is repped by UTA, Principal Entertainment, and Felker Toczek Suddleson Abramson McGinnis Ryan.