The Michael Grandage Company (MGC) has today announced that director Michael Grandage will helm Jack and Lem, the feature film adaptation of David Pitts‘ acclaimed book, Jack and Lem: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship, exploring the incredible thirty-year friendship between John F. Kennedy and Kirk Lemoyne Billings.
David Scearce will adapt the book for the screen.
Despite growing up on opposite sides of the tracks, Kennedy and Billings met at prep school and remained best friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy’s life. Remarkably, Lem was a gay man at a time when homosexuality was illegal. Kennedy maintained their close bond despite warnings that it would derail his political career. Lem became a fixture in the Kennedy White House (he even had his own bedroom), and was the moral compass for the President during one of the most tumultuous times in American History.
Michael Grandage will produce under his production company MGC, alongside producers Andrew Zoppa and Alex Zoppa.
Photos courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Library and Columbia Point, Boston, Massachusetts
