Berlin 2013: Katherine Heigl to Star in Romantic Drama From 'Sessions' Filmmaker (Exclusive)

Katherine Heigl will star in the romantic drama A Moment to Remember, a feature remake of a Korean movie that will be director Ben Lewin’s follow-up to his acclaimed drama The Sessions.

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Scott Pictures will produce and finance with Sobini Films; Film 360 is also producing. Scott Pictures, which is prepping Lynne Ramsay's Jane Got a Gun starring Natalie Portman and Michael Fassbender, will be selling the film in Berlin.

The story centers on a fashion designer who is stricken with a disease that wipes away her memory, forcing her husband to desperately try to give her one last memory of their love.

The project is based on a Japanese TV series called Pure Soul broadcast on Yomiuri TV. In 2004, it was turned into a successful Korean film produced by CJ Entertainment and Sidus FNH Corporation. Sobini at one point had the English-language remake set up at CBS Films, but it fell into turnaround.

Scott Steindorff will produce with Sobini Films’ Mark Amin and Cami Winikoff, as well as Film 360’s Scott Lambert. (Film 360 recently produced Hope Springs, which starred Meryl Streep, and has action-thriller Paranoia, with Harrison Ford and Liam Hemsworth, coming out in October from Relativity.)

CJ Entertainment’s Miky Lee, Tetsu Fujimura, David Higgins and Judi Levine will executive produce, along with Scott LaStaiti, Peter Fruchtman and Dylan Russell from Scott Pictures. Motoko Kimura, the creator of Pure Soul will co-produce.

A late-spring production start is being eyed.

CAA is repping the domestic distribution rights.

Lewin wrote and directed Sessions, which netted star Helen Hunt an Oscar nomination, a BAFTA and an Indie Spirit nomination in the best supporting categories. It was Lewin’s first feature since 1994’s Paperback Romance. He is repped by Michael Lewis & Associates.

Heigl last starred in One for the Money and has The Big Wedding, in which she stars with Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton, awaiting an April release from Lionsgate. She is repped by CAA, Abishag and Morris Yorn.