Taylor Hackford has signed on to direct Tenn, a drama exploring the formative years of playwright Tennessee Williams, whose dysfunctional family life fueled some of his most acclaimed stage works, according to Variety.

Robin Shushan has written the screenplay.

The film focuses on how Williams' tumultuous upbringing -- complete with a scornful father, depression, conflicts about sexuality and watching his beloved sister institutionalized and lobotomized -- fueled the conflict in such plays as "The Glass Menagerie" and the Pulitzer Prize-winning "A Streetcar Named Desire."

No production date has been set.