Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy nominated actress Ashley Judd (Divergent series, De-Lovely, Double Jeopardy) and Primetime Emmy award winner Neil Patrick Harris (CBS’ “How I Met Your Mother”, Netflix’s “A Series of Unfortunate Events”, Gone Girl) have signed to star in the upcoming biopic Anita, from writer Chad Hodge (creator and showrunner of TNT’s acclaimed dramatic thriller series “Good Behavior” starring Michelle Dockery and FOX’s event series “Wayward Pines”), who will also direct. The film is based on the shocking, untold story of controversial religious activist Anita Bryant and her infamous 1977 campaign to repeal a gay rights law in Miami. The announcement was made today by Radiant Films International’s President and CEO, Mimi Steinbauer who is handling worldwide sales on the film.

Starting principal photography this September, Anita is produced by powerhouse producers Howard Rosenman and Darren Star.  Rosenman’s Oscar nominated film Call Me By Your Name was a critical and box office sensation in 2018 and won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay by James Ivory. Star is the Emmy award winning creator/producer of HBO’s “Sex and the City” and TVLand’s hit series “Younger.”  Also on board is producer Tim Duffy and Executive Producer Michael W. Gray.

Anita Bryant (Judd) was a former beauty pageant winner and singer turned celebrity spokeswoman for the Florida Citrus Commission. Using her celebrity platform, she led a highly publicized campaign called Save Our Children to repeal legislation that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in Miami. While her campaign incited an organized opposition to gay rights that spread across the nation, her controversial views and incendiary rhetoric ultimately destroyed her career, and inadvertently ignited the gay rights movement. The film is the result of an unprecedented investigation by writer-director Chad Hodge, including significant time he spent with Anita Bryant at her current home in Oklahoma.

“We are thrilled to shine a spotlight on the surprising and wholly original story of Anita,” says Steinbauer. “Chad has one simple goal with this film – to tell the truth.  Ashley and Neil are perfectly cast to explore this complicated, conflicted person and to give audiences the opportunity to see first-hand how Anita’s actions led to a movement that is still prevalent and necessary 42 years later.”

“As a gay man and a writer who likes to explore complex, messy characters, I’ve always thought about Anita Bryant. How could this celebrity who espoused Christian goodness and orange juice through song suddenly use those platforms to go on a nationwide anti-gay crusade and overturn gay rights laws,” stated Hodge. “I wanted to find out who Anita was, who the people around her were, and what everybody wanted out of this. Once the truth revealed itself, I realized this was a dark twisted thriller that holds up a mirror, and a warning, to our current society.” 

Ashley Judd is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominated actress who most recently starred in Epix’s political thriller series Berlin Station. Her credits include co-starring in the international box office franchise series, Divergent, the awards nominated Cole Porter story, De-Lovely and the Paramount thriller, Double Jeopardy. Judd is a social justice humanitarian and a Global Goodwill Ambassador for the UNFPA and the Global Ambassador for Population Services. She is also a New York Times bestselling author for All That Is Bitter & Sweet, detailing her vists to grassroots programs in 13 countries.

Neil Patrick Harris has been performing in a multitude of mediums for over 30 years. He has starred in several successful films, including David Fincher’s multi-award-winning thriller Gone Girl, co-starring Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck, and Alexander Payne’s Downsizing with Matt Damon. Most recently, Harris starred as Count Olaf in Netflix’s Emmy nominated television series “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” based on the best-selling children’s books. He is Golden Globe and Emmy nominated for his role as Barney Stinson on CBS’s hit television series “How I Met Your Mother,” which aired on the network for nine seasons.  In 2010, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for “Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series” for his performance in “Glee.” Harris also won a Tony Award for his performance in the 2015 Broadway revival of ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch,’ and co-produced the documentary WIG, which premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and will air on HBO in June.

American writer and producer Chad Hodge has created four hit television series.  In addition to “Good Behavior” and “Wayward Pines,” Hodge created NBC’s "The Playboy Club" and The CW’s “Runaway.” For his work on “Good Behavior,” Hodge was nominated for the 2018 WGA Award for Best Episodic Drama Writing. 

ABOUT RADIANT FILMS INTERNATIONAL:

Founded by industry veteran Mimi Steinbauer, Radiant Films International is an international sales company that acquires and distributes theatrical feature films for the foreign and U.S. markets.

Radiant Films International’s current slate for the upcoming Cannes film market also includes the thriller Stripped, starring Charlie Cox and Brittany Snow and produced by DiBonaventura Pictures, and Endless (aka Undying) starring Alexandra Shipp (upcoming Dark Phoenix, Love, Simon, Straight Outta Compton) and Famke Janssen (X-Men franchise, ABC’s “How to Get Away with Murder”) as well as the recently announced Unplugging starring Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers, Disney’s Confessions of a Shopaholic, Fox’s “Arrested Development”) and Matt Walsh (HBO’s “Veep”, Steve McQueen’s Widows, Fox’s Keeping Up with the Joneses), and Plus One starring Jack Quaid (The Hunger Games franchise, Logan Lucky, and Warner Bros’ Rampage) and Maya Erskine (Netflix’s upcoming Wine Country, Hulu’s Pen15, FilmBuff’s When Jeff Tried to Save the World).