David Mamet Writing About Anne Frank

Published by Jeff Leins on: August 13th, 2009

Playwright and screenwriter David Mamet is working a screenplay based on the diary of Anne Frank.  The Disney film will be based on her writing, a 1950’s play about her, and Mamet’s take on the story.

The diary of Anne Frank was given to her on June 12, 1942 (her 13th birthday) and chronicles her life until August 1944 during World War II and the Holocaust.  Her family went into hiding that July and after two years in a secret enclosure were betrayed to Nazi forces.  Frank died at the age of 15 in a German concentration camp.

According to Variety, Mament will produce alongside Andrew Braunsberg, who spent a year securing the rights from Anne Frank’s estate as well as the original play’s representation.

Mamet’s involvement (especially with Disney) is curious because typically his characters are intense males, for example his Pulitzer Prize-winning Glengarry Glen Ross and an executive producer role on the CBS show “The Unit.”  He also wrote and directed a brutal, but compelling MMA film called Redbelt that I love.