JT LeRoy Finally Gets The Big Screen Treatment In ‘Author: The JT LeRoy Story’

One of the most outrageous, surprising, and extraordinary real-life stories is finally getting the big screen treatment. Author: The JT LeRoy Story premiered at Sundance earlier this year, and in the first trailer, we get a pretty clear overview of the stranger than fiction events that took the literary world by storm a decade ago. Directed by Jeff Feuerzeig, the doc features a first-person account from Laura Albert, the writer who conjured up the fictional male author out of thin air to help deal with her own crippling insecurities. 

As the elusive LeRoy became the darling of Hollywood, with his tales of abuse and life on the edge not to mention his best-selling books, Albert pulled the strings quietly in the background. This marks the first time we're hearing the story from her perspective, which is what attracted Feuerzeig to the project. "My reaction to this story was the same as everyone else's," he told The L.A. Times after the film's premiere. "It's a great literary hoax, and that was that. But as I started reading all these stories I thought, 'There's more here; there's something we're not hearing.'" 

While the documentary is scheduled to hit theaters on September 9, Hollywood is also taking a crack at the incredible story with Kristen Stewart expected to star as Savannah Kroop, the woman who posed as LeRoy. Helena Bonham Carter and James Franco are also expected to star in the feature. Watch the trailer for Author: The JT LeRoy Story, above.