William H. Macy to Lead Abe Sylvia's 'Dirty Girl'

According to a report in Variety, William H. Macy will team up with Sally Hawkins in Dirty Girl, a coming of age comedy about friendship and the search for identity set in the 1980s.  The film is directed by Broadway performer and choreographer Abe Sylvia (The Producers, Cats), who will be making his feature film directorial debut.  The film is currently being shopped at the American Film Market.

The film, a musical set to an 80s soundtrack, also features Lisa Kudrow, Sally Hawkins, Juno Temple and Jeremy Dozier, and will begin filming in march.

Temple plays the lead as 'dirty girl' Danielle, Hawkins is playing her "reformed slut" mother Sue-Ann, Macy is Sue-Ann's Mormon fiance, and Kudrow portrays Clarke's (the gay teen's) repressed mother. 

It is believed that John Michael Higgins and Camryn Manheim also appear in the film, although no official reports have confirmed their participation to date. 

The film is produced by Rob Paris, Charles Pugliese, Jana Edelbaum and Rachel Cohen. Vachon, Pam Koffler and Michael Lesser are executive producing. Dirty Girl is backed by Ideal Partners and produced by Rob Paris' Paris Films and Christine Vachon's Killer Films.

William H. Macy has appeared on Broadway in Our Town and Speed the Plow, replacing Jeremy Piven after leaving the production due to food poisoning.  Macy is a co-founder of the off-Broadway Atlantic Theater Company.  Credits with the company as a performer and director include American Buffalo, The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite, Three Sisters, and Boy's Life. He received an Oscar nomination for Fargo and won two Emmy Awards for starring in and co-writing the telefilm Door to Door. He has won the Screen Actors Guild Award, being nominated for nine Emmy Awards and seven Screen Actors Guild Awards in total. He is also a three-time Golden Globe Award nominee.  His film credits include: House of Games, Things Change, Homicide, Oleanna (playing a role he reprised after originating the role in the play of the same name), Wag the Dog, State and Main, Spartan, Benny & Joon, Above Suspicion, Mr. Holland's Opus, Ghosts of Mississippi, Air Force One, Boogie Nights, Pleasantville, Gus Van Sant's remake of Psycho, Happy, Texas, Mystery Men, Magnolia, Jurassic Park III, Focus, Panic, Welcome to Collinwood, Seabiscuit, The Cooler, and Sahara.