Ted Kennedy’s Chappaquiddick scandal is becoming a movie
And the Fifty Shades of Grey director is attached.
Back in March, Sam Taylor-Johnson, the director of erotic blockbuster Fifty Shades of Grey, turned down any possibility of returning for the sequels thanks to reported clashing with the book series’ author, E.L. James.
Deadline now reports that Taylor-Johnson has landed a new project. And it’s one that takes on one of most infamous scandals in Massachusetts history: the Ted Kennedy/Chappaquiddick incident.
As the story goes, longtime U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy hosted a party on Chappaquiddick, the small island connected to Martha’s Vineyard via ferry, in the summer of 1969. Following the party late that night, he accidentally veered his car off a one-lane bridge, heading right into a 500-foot channel. Kennedy emerged, but his passenger — 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, Robert Kennedy’s campaign staffer — drowned.
Ted Kennedy didn’t report the accident until 10 hours after it happened. Kennedy later pled guilty to leaving the scene and received a two-month suspended jail sentence.
Deadline reports Chappaquiddick will follow “the seven most dramatic days’’ of Ted Kennedy’s life, as he “struggles to follow his own moral compass’’ and “protect his family’s legacy.’’
Notable Martha’s Vineyard vacationers:
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