"Summer Crossing" will mark Johansson's directorial debut. Her film acting credits include "The Avengers," "Iron Man 2," "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," "The Other Boleyn Girl" and "Lost in Translation." She has appeared on Broadway in A View From the Bridge and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. "Several years ago I began working alongside the Capote estate and writer Tristine Skylar to adapt 'Summer Crossing,' an inspired early work of Truman's which has long captured my heart," Johansson said in a statement. "Being able to bring this story to the screen as my full length directorial debut is a life dream and deep privilege.”

"Summer Crossing" is about a 17-year-old debutant who chooses to pursue a romance with a Jewish valet parking attendant rather than travel to Paris with her parents. The story is set in New York during a 1945 heat wave.

The novel was not published during Capote's life because he threw it into the trash, but the manuscript resurfaced at a 2004 auction and was published with the blessing of Capote's former editor.