EXCLUSIVE: 04 Entertainment has acquired the rights to Nurturing Healing Love: A Mother’s Journey Of Hope and Forgiveness, a memoir by Scarlett Lewis, inspired by the loss of Lewis’ son in the Sandy Hook massacre, for development as a television movie. Law & Order alumna Elisabeth Röhm is attached to star, direct and executive produce.
Per producers, Nurturing Healing Love is inspired by the horrific loss of Lewis’ son, Jesse following an act of unimaginable violence at the Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012. Lewis experienced something that no parent should ever have to endure on a day that started just like any other. When a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Scarlett’s life changed forever. However, this isn’t a story about a massacre. It’s a story about love and survival. It’s about how to face the impossible, how to find courage when you think you have none, and how to choose love, instead of anger, fear, or hatred.
Following Jesse’s death, Scarlett went on an unexpected journey, inspired by a simple three-word message he had scrawled on their kitchen chalkboard shortly before he died: Norurting Helin Love (Nurturing Healing Love). It was as if he knew just what his family would need in order to go on after this horrible tragedy. Even more incredible, when Adam Lanza entered Jesse’s classroom, his gun jammed and as he was adjusting it, Jesse shouted to his classmates to run. Nine did and survived.
Bolstered by Jesse’s words and actions on the day of the massacre, Scarlett took her first step toward a new life. And with each step, it became clearer how true Jesse’s message was. She learned that love was indeed the essential element necessary to move forward and that taking the path of love is a choice. We can live in anger and resentment, or we can choose love and forgiveness.
“I’m very excited about this partnership and even more elated to spread my beloved son’s message of courage” Lewis said. “We all have the capacity for the courage Jesse showed on that day. It’s the courage to be kind and gentle, to do the right thing, to forgive, to step outside of our own pain. That’s the courage to choose love.”
Röhm will executive produce with Matt Luber, Liat Gerszt of Silvergale Productions and Colet Abedi, Jasmine Abedi and Brian Zargorski of 04 Entertainment.
Röhm is also making her directorial debut with Girl In The Basement, a film inspired by actual events of a young woman imprisoned in her family home, starring Stefanie Scott, Judd Nelson and Joely Fisher. Rohm is repped by Buchwald and manager Matt Luber.
04 Entertainment’s current development slate includes feature Dying To Be Me by Anita Moorjani with Mark Holder and Christine Holder of Wonder Street and Gerszt, a scripted and unscripted series centered on the West Point military academy; a feature film based on K.A. Tucker’s bestselling YA series One Tiny Lie; a documentary with legendary chef Marco Pierre White, a paranormal series written by Ari Schlossberg (Hide and Seek, Harpers Island); and film, The Royals Next Door with bestselling author Karina Halle.