Lately, Alzheimer’s disease seems to have found a place in Hollywood. That’s why one senior living CEO is especially excited to share his mother’s story with the masses.
“Still Alice did well at the box office, and it wasn’t even a true story,” Aegis Living CEO Dwayne Clark told Senior Housing News. When Clark’s memoir about his mother and her struggle with Alzheimer’s hits the big screen, it will be a true story.
Clark founded Redmond, Washington-based Aegis Living in 1997 and has grown the company’s portfolio to 27 properties, with several more under development. Clark’s book, My Mother, My Son, was published in 2012, and takes a look into his own experience with his mother and the disease. Now, it will be made into a movie.
When the opportunity for a film adaptation presented itself, Clark was flexing his muscles in Hollywood for other purposes. He owns a small movie company, True Productions, and was looking to connect with a distributor to help distribute a documentary he made. In the process, he was introduced to producer Randall Emmett, and they wound up hitting it off.
Clark gave Emmett a copy of his book, My Mother, My Son, and joked that the story would “make a great movie someday.” Soon after, Emmett called Clark and asked if he had been kidding.
“I kind of was,” Clark told SHN. “But Randy wasn’t kidding.”
Emmett had read Clark’s book and shown it to Irwin Winkler, an Oscar-winning, long-time Hollywood producer whose credits include Rocky, Goodfellas, The Wolf of Wall Street and Raging Bull.
“He’s a rockstar,” Clark said.
Clark’s story had resonated with Winkler, who, like countless others, has had loved ones struggle with debilitating memory loss. Winkler told Emmett that he was interested in making My Mother, My Son into a film—and that the film adaptation would be his last.
The movie, which does not yet have a title, is expected to start shooting in the fall, Clark said. Clark will have “a great amount of control” in the moviemaking process, he said, and the film will stay true to the story.
“The book is the Bible for the script,” Clark said.
When asked what actor he would like to see play himself on screen, Clark stayed mum.
“I don’t care who plays me,” Clark said. “My hopes for the film are that it does justice to my mother, and honors who she was, and that it does justice to the disease.”
Written by Mary Kate Nelson
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