John Sayles, the most significant and influential independent filmmaker of the past 25 years, is adapting Sheila Weller’s 2008 exploration of the lives of Joni Mitchell, Carole King and Carly Simon, “Girls Like Us,” into a motion picture. Katie Jacobs, director and executive producer of “House” is set to direct.

Not the household names they once were, it is a given that without what these three women brought to the musical table, much of what is taken for granted today would exist in a substantially different form. Not only did each contribute different sensibilities to the popular music canon, they were products of  diverse backgrounds that played large roles in their music.

I read the book primarily for the part on Joni Mitchell ,  but I found a new respect for Ms. Simon, who while being the lesser talent was definitely, as we would say,  the hot chick of the ’70s.

While Sayles’ last couple of pictures have been wanting in both commercial and critical acclaim, his screenwriting abilities — twice nominated for Oscars — have remained his forte. And music has always played critical roles in his movies. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio singing “Dimming of the Day” and “Heart of a Saturday Night” in 1999’s “Limbo” (one of only a dozen or so actually great American pictures of the past 20 years) are stunning — and she sang them live as the cameras rolled.

It’s reported that Sony Pictures is producing the picture, it is way too early for casting calls. But it is intriguing to imagine who in the world could be cast to play these women whom many of us already have indelible emotional images?

Shelia Weller is interviewed by Richard Flynn, Professor of Literature, Georgia Southern University, here: 

http://jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=2356