Tim Roth to Direct Film Adaptation of Marc Parent's 'Turning Stones' Non-Fiction Book

Tim Roth revealed the details of his next directorial effort at the Off Plus Camera International Festival of Independent Cinema (April 8-17) in Krakow, Poland, where Roth was feted with the Against the Current achievement award.

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The project will be an adaptation of Marc Parent's 1996 non-fiction book Turning Stones: My Days and Nights with Children at Risk, a collection of accounts of children in various situations of child abuse. Roth, who was abused as a child, tackled similar subject matter before in his devastating 1999 directorial debut The War Zone.

Parent was a twentysomething from the Midwest who went to New York city to try to make it as an actor. He was unsuccessful in this endeavor, but joined an experimental social work unit at Emergency Children's Services. What followed was a series of situations in which Parent was called upon to protect children from abusive parents, up to and including breaking households apart and having parents arrested.

“He was an incredible social worker – he saved tons of children from horrible situations,” said Roth. “It's a really interesting story, and I couldn't get this film made [before], but it's the companion to The War Zone.”

Roth has no producer yet, but has Sam Rockwell in mind for the lead, although the actor is twice Parent's age when he started the job. Roth also wants to shoot in digital.

“It will give me real control of the atmosphere surrounding the children,” said Roth. “I can do take after take, I don't have to worry about money or how much [film] stock I've got, or about the guy who takes the film to the lab in the middle of the night having a crash because he's out of beer.”