Adrienne Shelly's widower to tell her "Story"

By Stephen Zeitchik

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Adrienne Shelly, writer-director of the hit "Waitress," which was released after her 2006 murder, left behind another screenplay that her widower will develop and produce.

The project, "The Morgan Story," is a multigenerational family drama that revolves around three sisters and follows them over the course of several decades. Shelly widower Andy Ostroy, who launched All for A Films to maintain and further his wife's legacy, said he believed it to be Shelly's best script.

"It's a little bigger than some of her other work," he said, speaking from the New York office of Ostroy/Lenardi, the marketing firm he owns. "If Adrienne's previous movies were comedies with a little bit of drama, this is a drama with a little bit of comedy."

Ostroy and producing partner Michael Roiff of Night and Day Pictures could again team up on the project, though both stressed it was still early in the process.

The pair recently completed producing another post-"Waitress" project based on a Shelly script, "Serious Moonlight," a dark comedy about a wife who duct-tapes her husband to the bathroom just as burglars arrive. Actress Cheryl Hines ("Curb Your Enthusiasm") is making her directorial debut on the independently financed picture, which will star Timothy Hutton and Meg Ryan. The movie will have its world premiere next month at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

Ostroy said he has talked to a number of studios about distribution but wants to wait until the premiere before making a deal.

Ostroy launched All for A Films after his wife, a writer-actress known for her roles in Hal Hartley's movies, was murdered in her West Village office in late 2006. "Waitress," which Shelly directed, wrote and starred in, was essentially complete at the time of her death. It went on to be a hit at Sundance, where Fox Searchlight bought it and, later that spring, turned it into a $22 million breakout.

Shelly's killer recently received a long prison sentence.

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)