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Michelle Williams To Play Astronaut Christa McAuliffe In ‘The Challenger’ Movie
Deadline ^ | October 2, 2018 | Mike Fleming Jr.

Posted on 10/03/2018 7:59:53 AM PDT by EdnaMode

Michelle Williams is set to star as Christa McAuliffe in The Challenger, a feature film about the 1986 space shuttle tragedy being produced by John and Art Linson and Argent Pictures’ Ben Renzo. Land of Mine director Martin Zandvliet will direct the biopic of sorts that is penned by Jayson Rothwell. A May 2019 production start is being eyed.

The Challenger will follow the true story of McAuliffe, a New Hampshire high school teacher who was selected to join NASA’s Teacher in Space Project. She eventually became part of the astronaut crew on the Space Shuttle Challenger, which launched from Cape Canaveral on January 28, 1986. The shuttle exploded 73 seconds after takeoff, on live TV, killing all seven aboard.

McAuliffe’s memory and mission left a lasting impression and legacy on her family, community and teachers worldwide (as the first teacher in space, McAuliffe was to have conducted classes during the mission). Many schools have been named in her honor, and she posthumously received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

“We are more than humbled and extremely grateful for the opportunity to help tell the story of Christa McAuliffe and the Challenger mission,” Renzo said. “Christa McAuliffe’s legacy deserves the strength, courage, experience and humanity that Michelle Williams brings to the role. The entire Argent team is honored and eager to responsibly capture and share the events and personal journeys of those surrounding this important historical moment with audiences around the world to help remember and further appreciate the sacrifices Christa and rest of the Challenger crew made to further our journey into space.”

Argent partners Jill Ahrens, Ryan Ahrens, Drew Brees, Tony Parker, Michael Finley and Derrick Brooks are executive producing.

Williams, a four-time Oscar nominee including most recently as Supporting Actress for 2017’s Manchester By the Sea, is next up on the big screen in Sony’s Venom opposite Tom Hardy and Riz Ahmed. It opens wide Friday.

She also just wrapped production on Bart Freundlich’s After the Wedding with Julianne Moore, and now has now started work on FX’s eight-episode limited series starring Sam Rockwell as Bob Fosse and Williams as Gwen Verdon. That project hails from Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda and Thomas Kail, Dear Evan Hansen‘s Steven Levenson, Fox 21 TV Studios and FX Productions.

Williams is repped by WME, Brillstein Entertainment and Bloom, Hergott.


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Chit/Chat; Society; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: argentpictures; artlinson; benrenzo; biopic; challenger; christamcauliffe; hollywood; johnlinson; landofmine; martinzandvliet; mcauliffe; michellewilliams; nasa; spaceshuttle; thechallenge; thechallenger; williams
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To: al baby

Don’t smear my heroes.

John Wayne modeled his walk/talk style from Wyatt Earp who was working the studios Wayne was a set builder/extra at age 17-18.


21 posted on 10/03/2018 8:21:21 AM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: rktman

Ping.


22 posted on 10/03/2018 8:21:53 AM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: EdnaMode

She’s Box Office Poison, now....................


23 posted on 10/03/2018 8:22:20 AM PDT by Red Badger (Q............PREPARE FOR 'SKY IS FALLING' WEEK...........................)
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To: EdnaMode
p22

Michelle Williams takes the controls of the stricken Challenger from the incompetent white males and pilots them all to safety.

24 posted on 10/03/2018 8:22:35 AM PDT by Snickering Hound
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To: Prolixus

Most people don’t know what he looked like.........................


25 posted on 10/03/2018 8:23:23 AM PDT by Red Badger (Q............PREPARE FOR 'SKY IS FALLING' WEEK...........................)
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To: Red Badger

With movie magic Depp looked a whole lot like Bulger. I’m embarrassed to admit I haven’t seen “Black Mass” yet but it’s on my watchlist.


26 posted on 10/03/2018 8:25:53 AM PDT by Prolixus (In all seriousness:)
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To: EdnaMode

I was in 11th grade and in chemistry class when someone burst in the room and exclaimed “the Space Shuttle blew up”. Nobody believed him because the guy was bit of a clown. But when the teacher rolled in the TV and we watched the replays of it, we were aghast. Unlike Fake Ford, I can recall this in crystal-clear details.


27 posted on 10/03/2018 8:26:00 AM PDT by NohSpinZone (First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers)
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To: Vaquero

Yeah, I’ve heard that. Apparently the validity of the claim is in dispute.

https://www.gasdetection.com/interscan-in-the-news/magazine-articles/movie-conqueror-really-cursed-look-radiation-paranoia/


28 posted on 10/03/2018 8:29:14 AM PDT by SoCal Pubbie
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To: Red Badger

Yup. She really alienated so many of her fans.


29 posted on 10/03/2018 8:30:22 AM PDT by EdnaMode
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To: DannyTN

There were a lot of tasteless jokes that came out of that. My favorite was What were her last words to her husband? You walk the dog, I’ll feed the fish.


30 posted on 10/03/2018 8:32:58 AM PDT by Gil4 (And the trees are all kept equal by hatchet, ax and saw)
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To: EdnaMode

Don’t tell us the ending


31 posted on 10/03/2018 8:33:32 AM PDT by longfellow (Bill Maher, the 21st hijacker.)
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To: EdnaMode

Can’t wait to see how Hollywood twists this into some twisted liberal fantasy like “First Man”....


32 posted on 10/03/2018 8:33:51 AM PDT by ObozoMustGo2012 ("Be quiet... you are #fakenews!")
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To: EdnaMode

She got totally nekkid along with Sarah Silverman in a movie once. And that’s about all I care about her.


33 posted on 10/03/2018 8:34:24 AM PDT by real saxophonist (You can play a shoestring if you're sincere. - John Coltrane)
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To: Gil4

Oh yeah that’s horrible! LOL!


34 posted on 10/03/2018 8:34:32 AM PDT by DannyTN
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To: Gil4

Oh yeah that’s horrible! LOL!


35 posted on 10/03/2018 8:34:32 AM PDT by DannyTN
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To: EdnaMode

Bleh ... There were six professional astronauts on board, who actually had good reasons to be there.

I guess they’re chopped liver.


36 posted on 10/03/2018 8:34:55 AM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: EdnaMode

Me, for one. I enjoyed watching her in Passengers


37 posted on 10/03/2018 8:35:57 AM PDT by Red Badger (Q............PREPARE FOR 'SKY IS FALLING' WEEK...........................)
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To: Red Badger; dead

She looks good though !

I mean Sarah Brightman is old too but for some reason she’s aging in reverse.


38 posted on 10/03/2018 8:38:41 AM PDT by Celerity
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To: EdnaMode
This will sound insensitive, but McAuliffe was just a passenger for NASA public relations.

Judy Resnik earned her spot on two crews as an engineer, performed exceptionally during her first mission, and had the presence of mind to activate her (and possibly the pilot's) air pack after Challenger breakup.

Judy had the right stuff, and deserves more respect and remembrance.

39 posted on 10/03/2018 8:39:48 AM PDT by Jonah Hex
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To: Red Badger

She was good in the Hunger Games movies too.


40 posted on 10/03/2018 8:40:54 AM PDT by EdnaMode
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