Patricia Rozema may be Canadian, but she’s been handed the keys to a coveted American money-making institution. HBO Films and Picturehouse have put the celebrated director of such art-house films as I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing and Mansfield Park in the director’s chair for the first theatrical movie adaptation of an American Girl book.

Underway in Toronto, the US$13-million film, Kitt Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery, stars Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) as a Depression-era child coping with abject poverty. Rounding out the cast are Joan Cusack (In & Out), Chris O’Donnell (Kinsey), Julia Ormond (Legends of the Fall), Wallace Shawn (My Dinner with Andre) and Stanley Tucci (The Impostors).

Rozema says she is ‘thrilled to be shooting in Toronto again,’ noting it’s the first time she’s shot a feature there since 1995’s When Night Is Falling. ‘To people who know Toronto, it’s going to be very obvious we shot the film here, even though it’s not set here. We’re leaving recognizable places and buildings in the background.’

Shooting on Kitt Kittredge began on May 31 and will wrap in early July. The screenplay is by Ann Peacock (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe), and the film is coproduced by Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas of HBO Films, Ellen L. Brothers of American Girls and Lisa Gillan of Red Om Films. Actress Julia Roberts, of Red Om, is the exec producer. The film is slated for a 2008 release.

Three American Girl MOWs have previously shot in Toronto. The American Girl books have also inspired a bestselling series of toy dolls, all created by Mattel.