Diablo Cody dives into directing

Photo: Tom Wallace

Diablo Cody is about to make her directing debut. Mandate Pictures has announced that the Oscar-winning “Juno” scribe will film her own original screenplay, a religiously themed comedy titled “Lamb of God.”
The studio provided this synopsis: “The comedy follows a young conservative religious woman who loses her faith after a plane crash, decides to go to Las Vegas to live the life of a sinner, and on her journey finds her way back to her faith.” Casting is said to be imminent.
The disappointment of Cody’s sophomore film, “Jennifer’s Body,” her rewrite of “Burlesque” and the recent cancellation of her TV show “The United States of Tara” after three seasons clearly haven’t dulled her appetite for a challenge. Posting about her directing debut, Cody mentioned that Jason Reitman (director of two Cody scripts, “Juno” and “Young Adult,” which debuts later this year) “predicted that the night shoots in Vegas will induce neon-sick delirium.”
In case "plane crash/heretic/sinner/Vegas" sounds a few yuks short of comedy gold, Cody reassuringly blogged that “Lamb of God” isn’t “the cynicism-fest implied by the log line. It’s a nice Christmas story.”