Well, this is certainly exciting: Joan Didion, famed American novelist and essayist perhaps best-known for her essay “Slouching towards Bethlehem,” documenting Haight Ashbury in San Francisco during the height of its drug-riddled past, is coming back to the big-screen–writing for the big screen, that is.

As The Playlist has confirmed, Didion has decided to team up with actor, director, and writer Todd Field to co-write As It Happens, a political thriller, which has also secured Jennifer Fox, producer of the recent We Need to Talk About Kevin, to serve as co-producer alongside Field. While Field’s decision to co-write is noteworthy in itself as he has successfully proven himself on a number of occasions, including Little Children which he wrote and directed, I find myself giddy with the thought of Didion’s long-awaited (at least by my standards) return.

While Didion is perhaps both widely known and highly praised for her work that doesn’t take place on the movie screen–how anyone can read her essay “John Wayne: A Love Story” and not cry at an America past is beyond me–she is, nevertheless, no novice to the coveted role of screenwriter. Didion has penned a number of scripts in the 70′s and 80′s, which notably includes The Panic in Needle Park starring Al Pacino. Her last foray into screenwriting, however, was with the 1996 drama-romance Up Close and Personal starring Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer at which I remember balling for days after seeing as a child.

But now, I am so happy to report that we must wait no longer; Didion is back. And given Field’s recent success in the writing department–his screenplay The Creed of Violence has just secured Christian Bale to play the lead–I have high hopes that As It Happens will be a great collaboration.

Check back here for more information as the movie develops!