Jim Sheridan's 'In America' to become an HBO Series

Jim Sheridan's semi-autobiographical drama In America was the most personal project of his career, and is also the most beloved. He directed and co-wrote the the film with his two daughters, Naomi and Kirsten, back in 2002 and earned them an Oscar nomination for the original screenplay and a Best Supporting noms for Djimon Hounsou and Samantha Morton. Its episodic nature always made it seem like a natural to become a television series, and now HBO is going to make that happen.

Deadline reports that the Sheridans are developing In America as a TV show for the cable network. Jim, Naomi, and Kirsten will exec-produce the project, which is inspired by their early years in New York and follows a poor Irish immigrant family who settle in a rundown Hell's Kitchen apartment building. There they try to escape a past that continues to haunt them while pursuing their individual dreams.

This is one case where it makes sense for a movie to become a series, and hopefully this gives Sheridan something worthwhile to do again. His last film was the Daniel Craig/Rachel Weisz thriller, Dream House, which is probably best left forgotten. If you've never seen In America that needs to be rectified like right now. I dare you not to fall in love with it.

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Sure Shots: Logan Lerman; Emilia Clarke; Jim Sheridan

* It's been a heck of a year for Logan Lerman, one that should wash the memory of The Three Musketeers away for good. The Percy Jackson star gave a highly regarded performance in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and also secured a role in Darren Aronofsky's Biblical epic, Noah. While he's got a Percy Jackson sequel and the indie Stuck In Love on the way, Lerman is now signing on to hang out with Brad Pitt and Shia LaBeouf for awhile. He'll join the cast of Fury, the WWII tank thriller from David Ayer (End of Watch) that follows a five-man American tank crew stuck behind Nazi lines at the tail end of the war. Lerman will play military typist Norman Ellison, with Pitt as Sgt. Wardaddy. Fury is expected to hit theaters on November 14th 2014.

* Literally burning up the small screen as Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones, Emilia Clarke has been making moves towards bigger things, as well. She was on the list of ladies vying for the female lead in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (and would have made a better option than Emily VanCamp), and recently shot Overdrive with Catching Fire star Sam Claflin. Now she'll join James Franco's latest directorial effort, an adaptation of Andres Dubus III's The Garden of Last Days. She'll take on the central role of April, a stripper who is forced to bring her 3-year old daughter to work on a night where she has a most unusual client. James Franco will also star, with Hanna Weg adapting the screenplay.

* Jim Sheridan, director of the amazing In America, has signed on to direct Playing with the Enemy, based on the novel by Gary Moore. The story chronicles the life of Moore's father, Gene, a Major League Baseball prospect for the Brooklyn Dodgers who saw his career interrupted by WWII. Joining the Navy, he was assigned to a top secret POW camp guarding the crew of a captured German sub. Moore convinced his commanders to let him teach the prisoners how to play baseball so he would be ready to take the field when the war was over.

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