New project round-up: RFK biopic starring Matt Damon, romantic comedy inspired by Emily Post, and story of amputee-athlete Jami Goldman

Senator Robert F. Kennedy, etiquette expert Emily Post, and amputee athlete Jami Goldman are each serving as the inspiration for an upcoming film.

Matt Damon has signed on for a biopic about politician and civil rights activist Robert F. Kennedy, reports Deadline. The script, based on Evan Thomas' 2002 biography His Life, will be written by Steven Knight. Knight's previous writing credits include Eastern Promises and the British Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, of all things. The film will be directed by Gary Ross, whose only two directorial outings so far have been Seabiscuit and Pleasantville. The film has a fairly respectable stable of artists behind it, and Kennedy's story is one that has fascinated people for decades, so the odds for success are good.

Emily Post, the expert on manners and etiquette, is the basis for a new romantic comedy. According to CinemaBlend, Warner Brothers is developing a movie about a female manners coach who tries to educate an uncultured young man. The Emily Post Institute, a high-profile source for etiquette advice founded by Post in 1946, is working with producers on the project. Since it seems likely that the film will be updated to the modern day, and the manners coach in question will simply be a Post-like figure, many of the finer points of Post's rules of etiquette may be lost in the shuffle. But hopefully they keep a few; imagine the sexual tension that could simmer as the simple cad struggles to glean what kind of tea-gown to wear in a closed motor!

Writer Gary Goldstein has optioned Up and Running: The Jami Goldman Story, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The book tells the true story of Goldman, an athlete who lost both her legs below the knee after getting trapped in a blizzard for 11 days. Goldman then went through a series of surgeries, competed for the U.S. Paralympics team in 2000, and is now a motivational speaker. It's hard to know what to expect from Goldstein, whose most impressive writing credit to date, really, truly, is the "Save the Max" episode of Saved by the Bell. Here's hoping this inspirational story gets the treatment it deserves.