SPECTACULAR NOW Helmer to Direct WEST OF SUNSET

‘Spectacular Now’ and ‘Smashed’ helmer James Ponsoldt has entered into talks to take the director’s chair for the F. Scott Fitzgerald drama ‘West of Sunset,’ says Deadline.

Based on the Stewart O’Nan novel of the same name, the drama follows ‘The Great Gatsby’ author Fitzgerald in the later years of his life when he moved to Hollywood in 1937 to start anew as a screenwriter. In poor health, with his wife consigned to a mental asylum and his finances in ruins, Fitzgerald struggled. The literary legend died December 1940 of a heart attack.

O’Nan’s book juxtaposed Fitzgerald’s time in Los Angeles with flashbacks to his early days, interspersing characters from Dorothy Parker to Ernest Hemingway and Humphrey Bogart.

Ponsoldt’s latest offering, ‘The End Of The Tour’ starring Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg, is released in cinemas later this year.