James Ivory adapting late screenwriter’s last article for new movie

Oscar winner James Ivory is teaming up with his longtime screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from beyond the grave for a new movie.
The late Jhabvala was responsible for the scripts of 23 Merchant Ivory movies, and now her one-time partner is adapting what was her final article for the New Yorker for a new Alexander Payne movie.
The Judge’s Will chronicles the struggles between a dying judge and his wife over his efforts to make sure his young mistress is cared for after his death.
The story was published in 2014, and Payne was quick to option it.
The Nebraska director asked Ivory, who turned Jhabvala’s scripts into movies, to consider tackling the project after he became the oldest living Oscar winner for his Call Me By Your Name screenplay earlier this year.
“It’s a universal enough premise, the business of a wealthy man having a mistress and wanting to take care of her after he dies,” Ivory told Deadline, adding, “You feel her (Jhabvala) influence, her way of thinking about people and relationships. There were people she wasn’t fond of when she met them, and in time grew to like them very much and she didn’t hold on to her dislikes.
“The family, needing to take care of the mistress, to worry about her, that seems a very Ruth way of looking at things.”