Adrienne Shelly’s Widower Keeping Her ‘Stories’ Alive

Posted by Robin Ruinsky (robin@filmschoolrejects.com) on March 20, 2009

The actress, writer, director Adreinne Shelly was murdered in a New York City flat she was using as her office in 2006.  Her tragic death came right before her greatest triumph. Her film, Waitress, was going to be shown at the Sundance Festival. The film was a hit.

Not only was it a hit at Sundance but it secured distribution with Fox Searchlight and went on to garner praise for Shelly’s writing, direction and acting. The film went on to earn $22 million dollars and was the multi-talented Shelly’s breakout work.

Andy Ostroy, Shelly’s widower is now going to produce another script that she wrote called The Morgan Stories. He launched All for A films to carry on the work his wife never had the chance to finish. The film follows the lives of three sisters over several decades.

Ostroy told THR.com:

“It’s a little bigger than some of her other work. If Adrienne’s previous movies were comedies with a little bit of drama, this is a drama with a little bit of comedy.”

This isn’t the only script Shelly left behind. Ostroy has produced Serious Moonlight starring Meg Ryan and Tim Hutton. The comedy is about a woman who duct tapes her husband to the bathroom right before they’re home is invaded by burglars. Cheryl Hines is making her directorial debut. Ostroy says he followed the same casting andpreparation procedure his wife would have in an effort to keep it as close to what she would have done had she lived. The film will make its debut at the Tribeca film festival.

Read more articles by Robin Ruinsky