Spinning Into Butter, the play that established Gilman as a dramatist, is about a young, white, seemingly nice New England college administrator who discovers, while investigating a racially charged incident on campus, her true feelings about people of other races. A second act confessional speech by the character regularly stunned audiences with its frankness.

The play debuted at the Goodman Theatre in 1999, where Mary Beth Fisher played the lead and Les Waters directed. A 2000 Lincoln Center Theater production star Hope Davis and was directed by Daniel Sullivan.

Norman Twain and Lou Pitt will team with Parker as producers with the financing of Whitsett Hill Films. Shooting will star Oct. 10 in New York City.

Gilman herself will adapt the play for the screen. Her other plays include Boy Gets Girl and Blue Surge.

Brokaw's many stage credits include the original productions of How I Learned to Drive, As Bees in Honey Drown, The Long Christmas Ride Home, This Is Our Youth, Lobby Hero and The Dying Gaul and the current revival of The Constant Wife.