Rose Gilroy has admitted Scarlett Johansson agreeing to star in 'Fly Me to the Moon' is "beyond [her] wildest dreams".
The 'Her' actress had taken on the project to produce via her company These Pictures - which she leads with partners Keenan Flynn and Jonathan Lia - but eventually decided to take the lead role of Kelly Jones and the screenwriter admitted she was "totally shocked and in awe" when she heard the news.
Asked about Scarlett agreeing to star in the film, she told The Hollywood Reporter: "Well, it was beyond my wildest dreams. I was totally shocked and in awe.
"The idea that Scarlett would be delivering lines from something I wrote — I’m still pinching myself.
"I am convinced this is a really elaborate prank on me, so it was crazy. But I will say to her and Keenan’s credit, I handed in a draft and they gave me a lot of notes. There were a lot of notes after I handed in that first draft. And then, from there, I took those notes and I worked really hard to put them in.
"I then sent the script back, and then it was like, 'Hey, this is feeling good.' So there were more notes from there, but she added so much to this character.
"Scarlett exists on every page of the script.
"So I was just blown away to get to work with her in that capacity, and the fact that she was going to play Kelly just blew my mind."
Rose admitted Jon Hamm's character in 'Mad Men', Don Draper, was a big source of inspiration for Kelly.
She said: "Don Draper was absolutely a part of the conversation. Leo’s [DiCaprio] character in Catch Me If You Can was another character in the conversation.
"So Don Draper was totally an inspiration, and that scene of Kelly with the [fake pregnancy] belly was actually in the first 15 pages that I wrote on spec to win the job.
"So Don Draper and the idea of truth and lies totally inspired by that."
