CODA director Siân Heder has set Being Heumann as her next project and Mark Ruffalo is set to star in it. More on the film below.
Even three years after CODA beat all the odds and won Best Picture at the 2022 Academy Awards, we’re still in awe of how such a small, delightful film managed to break through like it did. Unfortunately, the film has somewhat disappeared from public consciousness since then, but director Siân Heder has set her eyes on a new project.
As Deadline reports, Heder will direct and co-write Being Heumann, adapting the story of disability rights activist Judy Heumann to the big screen. Heder will write the script together with Taussig based on Heumann’s memoir.
Heumann used a wheelchair for most of her life after contracting polio when she was just 18 months old. She had to fight for her right for basic education after a principal at a school deemed her a fire hazard. She also sued the New York Board of Education after it denied her a teaching licence due to her disability. In other words, this woman rocked.
The film will likely tackle Heumann’s historic role in staging a 28-day sit-in in 1977, where over 100 disabled people took over San Francisco Federal Building to demand disability access to all federal buildings.
Ruth Madeley has been tapped to play Neumann and she’ll be joined in the cast by Mark Ruffalo as Joseph Califano, the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare who initially refused to sign the Act and refused protesters food and medical care during the demonstration.
As with CODA, Apple Original Films is behind Being Heumann. Heumann, who died in 2023, will be credited as an executive producer on the film.
More on Being Heumann as we hear it.
