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Hollywood star to produce Camp Fire film, adaption of journalist’s ‘Paradise’ book

Hollywood star Jamie Lee Curtis is spearheading a feature film adaptation of journalist Lizzie Johnson’s nonfiction book about the Camp Fire, the devastating 2018 wildfire that killed 85 people in Northern California.

Curtis, a California native, will work with producer Jason Blum to adapt Johnson’s, “Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire,” published last year, Deadline first reported June 22.

Johnson, a former San Francisco Chronicle reporter now with the Washington Post, confirmed the project in a social media post last week. She will be an executive producer on the project, according to Deadline.

“It’s an honor to be able to continue sharing the story of Paradise and its people,” she tweeted, tagging Curtis.

According to Deadline, the film will feature the stories of bus driver Kevin McKay and school teacher Mary Ludwig, who helped evacuate nearly two dozen children as flames raged the morning of Nov. 8, 2018.

Johnson gave an account of that harrowing drive in her book.

Blum’s production company, Blumhouse, is best known for the “Paranormal Activity” and “The Purge” horror franchises, and for working with Curtis on the 2021 sequel “Halloween Kills.”

The Camp Fire has been the subject of several documentaries, including “Fire in Paradise,” released by Netflix in 2019, and Ron Howard-directed “Rebuilding Paradise” by National Geographic in 2020.

The disaster has not yet been depicted on the big screen in a dramatized adaptation.

Most of the homes shown on Nov. 13, 2018, at the Pine Grove Mobile Home Park were destroyed by the Camp Fire that ran through Paradise and surrounding communities.
Most of the homes shown on Nov. 13, 2018, at the Pine Grove Mobile Home Park were destroyed by the Camp Fire that ran through Paradise and surrounding communities.

Focus Features purchased the rights to the story of Heather Roebuck, a mother who gave birth via C-section at Paradise’s Feather River Hospital as the Camp Fire raged.

Filmmaker Matthew Heineman in August 2019 announced he would write and direct the Roebuck biopic for Focus Features. No release date has been given.

The Camp Fire stands as the deadliest and most-destructive wildfire in California’s recorded history. It destroyed more than 18,800 homes and businesses, according to Cal Fire, effectively leveling the Butte County town of Paradise and ravaging nearby Concow and Magalia.

Eighty-five people died, some of them trapped in vehicles while trying to evacuate.

Cal Fire investigators determined the 153,000-acre blaze was sparked by a faulty electrical transmission line operated by Pacific Gas and Electric Co.