From all outward appearances, Pippa Lee (ROBIN WRIGHT PENN) leads a charmed existence. An anchor of feminine serenity, she is the devoted wife of an accomplished publisher (ALAN ARKIN) thirty years her senior, the proud mother of  two grown children, and a trusted friend and confidant to all who cross her path. But as Pippa dutifully follows her husband to a new life in a staid Connecticut retirement community, her idyllic world and the persona she has built over the course of her marriage will be put to the ultimate test.
In truth, the gracious woman of the present day has seen more than her fair share of turmoil in her past - an array of erotic misadventures, a diet-pill-addicted mother and the suicide of an exotic rival - until finding love and security in a family of her own. Embarking on a bittersweet journey of self-discovery, along with help from a new, strange and soulful acquaintance (KEANU REEVES), Pippa must now confront both her volatile past and the hidden undercurrents of her seemingly placid world to find the true sense of self which has always eluded her. 
By turns wry, humorous, and emotionally exacting, THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE presents the complex portrait of the many lives behind a single name.

THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE is adapted from writer-director Rebecca Miller's (PERSONAL VELOCITY, THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE) novel of the same name. 

About The Production
"To be perfectly honest, I've had enough of being an enigma.  I want to be known."
-- Pippa Lee

FROM PAGE TO SCREEN: WRITING THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE
THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE is the story of one woman's journey of self-discovery.  For author and filmmaker, Rebecca Miller, that journey started nearly ten years ago.
"Pippa Lee began as a novel," explains Miller, whose book was published to critical acclaim by Canongate in the UK last year, and became a best-seller in England. By turns humorous and emotionally exacting, it follows the inner-journey of a fifty year old wife and mother confronting the buried memories of her past while maintaining a tenuous grip on the seemingly idyllic world she has built for herself as an adult.
"It's about a woman who you think you know when you meet her," says Miller of her enigmatic protagonist.  "Of course, you find out that she's had a very different life than you'd ever expect, that she has a past. Gradually, you come to understand her, know her, and maybe even love her through understanding that past."
The genesis of Miller's novel came in 2000, following a reunion with a friend she hadn't seen in twenty years, an irrepressible young woman who had since become a responsible wife and mother. "I started thinking about how that happens, how somebody's identity mutates in that way, and whether or not you really ever change internally," says Miller. "That was the fundamental seed of it."
Miller would first go on to adapt the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winner PERSONAL VELOCITY (based on her short story collection of the same name) and write and direct THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE starring her husband, Daniel Day-Lewis, before turning her attention back to her unconventional heroine, Pippa Lee, in 2005. While finishing the final rewrites on the novel, she began working on the film's screenplay.
She describes the screenwriting process as a "reinvention" of her novel, rather than an adaptation in the purest sense.  "There was so much in the well that I wanted to keep going," says Miller, who continued working on the script through multiple drafts for just over a year.  "I wanted to see it in a different dimension. I wanted to give it to actors and see what they could do with it."
"For me, it's just a deeper and deeper search into the same terrain," she explains.  "The form of it is not the same. In some small ways, the plot isn't the same. Even the characters in ways are not the same because of the actors' interpretations. From the beginning, I knew that I didn't need to be enslaved to the book because I'd already written it. I had the freedom to explore. "

PARTNERS IN TIME: ASSEMBLING THE PRODUCTION TEAM
With script in hand, Miller turned to trusted friend and longtime producing partner, Lemore Syvan (GRACIE, SHERRYBABY).  Syvan, who has produced all of Miller's films, was quick to rise to the challenge. "For me it was just a joy, essentially," says the producer. "I know Rebecca and her filmmaking. I knew what she had in mind and I was ready to make it happen."
For Syvan, though, the initial challenge was familiar enough - mounting a complex independently produced film with a limited budget. "My first thought was, 'We have to make this as expansive as we can,'" she explains.  "I'd have to drive the production to be as efficient as possible to allow the script to come to life. I knew it was a much bigger movie than we had the means for. But I also knew we could pull it off."
Syvan credits producing partners, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner at Plan B Entertainment for helping to make that happen.
Regarded as one of the most innovative production entities working in the industry today, Plan B has been a driving force behind such eclectic films as THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD, THE DEPARTED and A MIGHTY HEART, and welcomed the opportunity to join forces with Miller's team. "Creatively, they were a part of the process from the beginning to the end," says Syvan. "Dede is a true partner in that sense and for us, she was a pillar of strength." 
"Movies are hard, little movies are harder, and little movies that are passion projects are the hardest of all," says Gardner, who, with Jeremy Kleiner, collaborated with Miller from the film's initial development through to the final edit.  "It takes a lot of people to make it all happen and we were, quite frankly, lucky to be a part of it." 
"The biggest challenge, which Rebecca handled in an expert way, was creating this sort of seamless integration of different time periods in the character's life," says Kleiner of the film's unusual scenario, effectively a dialogue between Pippa Lee's past and present and their points of intersection.  "It was a creative question, but it had a production implication, too," says Kleiner. "Rebecca needed to figure out the camera approach and how to utilize the set design to maintain a sense of continuity so you felt like you were watching one person's journey." 
To achieve that aesthetic on film, the production team tapped the resources of cinematographer Declan Quinn (RACHEL GETTING MARRIED) and production designer Michael Shaw (BOYS DON'T CRY). Under Miller's direction, Quinn and Shaw formed a unique partnership to plan their approach long before the cameras rolled. The use of music would also prove essential in framing the story's multiple time periods, with Miller drafting veteran music supervisor Linda Cohen (THERE WILL BE BLOOD).
To round off the core creative team, Miller turned to three of her most trusted collaborators, film editor Sabine Hoffman, composer Michael Rohatyn and her indispensable casting director, Cindy Tolan.

CASTING THE ENSEMBLE
Working with casting director Cindy Tolan, the script for THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE was soon circulated among industry power brokers with extraordinary results - arguably one of the most remarkable ensembles put together for an independent film in recent memory. Starring Robin Wright Penn and Alan Arkin and rising star Blake Lively, THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE also features such luminary figures as Julianne Moore, Keanu Reeves, Maria Bello, Winona Ryder and Monica Bellucci in key supporting roles.  "I think a lot of it is a testament to Rebecca Miller," says Tolan of the star-studded cast. "People really want to work with her. They've all seen her movies and they know what an opportunity it is."   Read more

PAST MEETS PRESENT: CREATING THE WORLDS OF PIPPA LEE
THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE represented a homecoming for Rebecca Miller, filming in the Connecticut towns of New Milford and Danbury, near where she was raised. "There was something amazing about rediscovering this landscape that I knew so well that I almost took it for granted," she says.  "At the same time, knowing it proved a tremendous advantage. I set the book there and then I set the film there because I knew it so intimately."  Rehearsals were kept to a minimum with Miller having worked out most of the logistics with her cast and crew well in advance of filming. "We rehearsed for a few days before shooting with Alan and Robin, but really very little," says Miller. "I'm not a huge fan of rehearsal," she adds. "I find if you overdo it you can lose that thing you're after;  that organic moment the first time something happens in front of the camera."  Read more

REBECCA MILLER - Writer / Director
Rebecca Miller worked as a painter and an actress before becoming a writer and director. She is the author of the short story collection "Personal Velocity" (2001) and the novel "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee."  For the film version of PERSONAL VELOCITY, she won several awards, including the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. She has also written and directed the award-winning films ANGELA and THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE.
"The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee" is her first novel and is being published in 30 countries. The film version will be released in 2009, with a cast that includes Robin Wright Penn, Keanu Reeves, Julianne Moore, Alan Arkin, and Winona Ryder.
Rebecca Miller lives in Ireland and New York with her family.

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