Here are some of the most notable adaptations announced in August 2020:
– John Niven and Nick Ball will adapt Leslie K. Barry’s novel Newark Minutemen for Fulwell 73 Productions. Morgan James Publishing will publish the book in October 2020.
– Lynda Obst Productions and Nick Wechsler Productions have tapped Tom Dean to adapt Janna Levin’s short story “Life on the Möbius Strip”; Stephen Moyer will direct. The story was previously included in the anthology The Moth: 50 True Stories.
– Matt Nicholas, Nastassja Kayln, and Leon Langford will adapt a heist drama film from the Medium article “The 1997 Dunbar Armored Heist,” written by Nicole Henley,
– Doug Stanton will script the adaptation to his book In Harm’s Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors for Mark Gordon Productions. The nonfiction book was published in April 2001 by Henry Holt and Company.
– Ocean Independent has optioned Sarah Crossan’s suspense novel Here Is the Beehive. Caitriona Balfe will produce and possibly star. The novel was published this August in the UK by Bloomsbury Publishing.
– Over at Arcana, Charlie Kaufman will adapt the 1994 Japanese novel The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa. Ryan Gosling and Ken Kao will produce. Kodansha originally published the novel, though Stephen Snyder’s English translation wasn’t published until 2019 by Pantheon Books and Harvill Secker.
– Sony has acquired the comic book series The Kaiju Score, from writer James Patrick and artist Rem Broo. AfterShock Comics will launch the series in November.
– Warner Bros, Amblin Entertainment, and Harpo Films have hired Marcus Gardley to adapt the musical The Color Purple for screen. Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, and Steven Spielberg will produce. The 2005 Broadway musical’s book was written by Marsha Norman with music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray, and it was based on the 1982 novel by Alice Walker (originally published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich).
– And in the month’s vaguest news: Sony, Marvel Studios, and Pascal Pictures have tapped Olivia Wilde and Katie Silberman to script a movie based on an as-of-yet-unannounced character in the Spider-Man universal. Wilde will direct.
– Spyglass Media Group has acquired the thriller novel False Assurances, the first in a series of three books written by Christopher Rosow. The novel was published last April by Quadrant Publishing.
– Megan Chan Meinero will adapt her play Good Fortune for 42 and A-Major Media.
– Paramount Pictures, Scholastic Entertainment, Weed Road Pictures, and Josephson Entertainment have optioned Elsie Chapman’s YA fantasy novel Caster. Scholastic Press published in September 2019.
– Richard Hocutt, Mark Gould, and Tricia Woodgett will adapt the nonfiction novel Mahalia Jackson by Darlene Donloe. Queen Latifah’s Flavor Unit Entertainment and Jamie Foxx’s FoxxKing Entertainment will produce, and Jill Scott will star. The novel was published in 1992 by Holloway House.
– Virginia Feito will adapt her unpublished novel Mrs. March for Blumhouse Productions and Elisabeth Moss’s Love & Squalor Pictures. Moss is attached to star.
– Roxane Gay will adapt her six-part graphic novel The Banks for MACRO and TKO Studios. The series, illustrated by Ming Doyle, was published in 2019 by TKO Studios.
– Anton Corp and The Gotham Group tapped Meredith Dawson to adapt Rosie Danan’s novel The Roommate. Berkley will publish this month.
– Paramount Pictures, Lorne Michaels’s Broadway Video, and Pearl Street Films will produce an adaptation of The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood. Sam Wasson wrote the nonfiction book (published in February 2020 by Flatiron Books), and Ben Affleck will script, direct, and produce.
– Warner Bros., Aggregate Films, and Anonymous Content are adapting Gus Krieger’s Audible audiobook Superworld. Mark Perez will script, and Jason Bateman will produce/direct.
– Simon Rich will adapt his short story “Everyday Parenting Tips” for Universal Pictures, Lord Miller, and Maximum Effort. Paul King will direct. The short was originally published in The New Yorker in May.
Additional script sales can be found here on Script Pipeline.