Danny Strong, the Emmy-winning writer behind television's Game Change and Recount, and Lee Daniels' The Butler, will make his directorial debut with the J.D. Salinger biopic, Salinger's War.  Strong has put his own money behind his pen, as he optioned the rights to Kenneth Slawensk's "JD Salinger: A Life" and wrote the script on spec.  The biopic will trace the reclusive author's life from his early days attempting to break into New York's literary circle in the 1940s, to his acceptance with "The Catcher in the Rye," to his experience fighting in World War II, and beyond.  Hit the jump for more.

As THR reports, Strong will step behind the camera for his directorial debut on Salinger's War.  His writing continues to be in high demand with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Parts 1 and 2 due out this year and next, and with expected screenwriting work on the adaptation of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol.  Black Label Media's Molly Smith, Trent Luckinbill, and Thad Luckinbill will produce along with Bruce Cohen, Jason Schuman and Strong.

Here's the book description of Slawensk's "JD Salinger: A Life" (via Amazon):

One of the most popular and mysterious figures in American literary history, the author of the classicCatcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger eluded fans and journalists for most of his life. Now he is the subject of this definitive biography, which is filled with new information and revelations garnered from countless interviews, letters, and public records. Kenneth Slawenski explores Salinger’s privileged youth, long obscured by misrepresentation and rumor, revealing the brilliant, sarcastic, vulnerable son of a disapproving father and doting mother. Here too are accounts of Salinger’s first broken heart—after Eugene O’Neill’s daughter, Oona, left him—and the devastating World War II service that haunted him forever. J. D. Salinger features all the dazzle of this author’s early writing successes, his dramatic encounters with luminaries from Ernest Hemingway to Elia Kazan, his office intrigues with famous New Yorker editors and writers, and the stunning triumph of The Catcher in the Rye, which would both make him world-famous and hasten his retreat into the hills of New Hampshire. J. D. Salinger is this unique author’s unforgettable story in full—one that no lover of literature can afford to miss.