Here are some of the most notable adaptations announced in December 2020:
– A24 has picked up Ocean Vuong’s novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, which was published in June 2019 by Penguin Press.
– Blumhouse Productions (Jason Blum’s company) won the rights to Azam Ahmed’s New York Times article “She Stalked Her Daughter’s Killers Across Mexico, One by One” in a bidding war. Blum and Ahmed will produce.
– Also at Blumhouse: They will be teaming with Morgan Creek Entertainment Group to produce a(nother) sequel to The Exorcist, based on the novel Legion, written by original Exorcist novelist Willam Peter Blatty. David Gordon Green will possibly direct. Harper & Row published The Exorcist in 1973, and Simon & Schuster published its sequel in 1983.
– MGM, Plan B Entertainment (Brad Pitt), and Annapurna Pictures have tapped Cory Finley to script and direct the adaptation to M.T. Anderson’s novel Landscape with Invisible Hand. Candlewick published the book in September 2017.
– Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely will script the adaptation of Simon Stålenhag’s graphic novel The Electric State for Universal Pictures, AGBO (Anthony and Joe Russo), and Tom 78. The Russos will produce and direct, and Millie Bobby Brown is attached to star. Skybound Books published in September 2018.
– Look at Me Films and Zero Gravity are producing The Trespassers, adapted by Troy Blake from the story by Elmore Leonard. Anna Chazelle will direct. The short was published posthumously in 2014.
– Sarah Polley will script and direct the adaptation of Miriam Toews’ novel Women Talking. MGM, Orion Pictures, Plan B Entertainment, and Hear/Say Productions (Frances McDormand) will produce. McDormand will also star. Bloomsbury published the novel in 2019.
– SK Global and The Mazur/Kaplan Company acquired the rights to Peace Adzo Medie’s novel His Only Wife, which was published in September 2020 by Algonquin Books.
– Walt Disney Pictures and Whitaker Entertainment have tapped Brian Duffied to adapt The Thief, written by Megan Whalen Turner. The YA novel was first published in 1996 by Greenwillow Books.
– Universal Pictures, Wink Pictures, and Winterlight Pictures have optioned Nita Prose’s upcoming novel The Maid. Florence Pugh will star and produce. Penguin Random House will publish the murder mystery in 2022.
– Pictou Twist Pictures optioned Silver Donald Cameron’s nonfiction crime novel Blood in the Water: A True Story of Revenge in the Maritimes. Viking published the book in January 2020.
– Jon Dorsey will adapt Don Freeman’s 1968 children’s book Corduroy for Paramount and Walden Media. Tim Story is attached to direct.
– Brave Artists Management optioned the YA novel The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes, written by Elissa R. Sloan. It was published in September 2020 by HarperCollins.
– Debra Granik will provide the script for the adaptation to Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dime: On (Not) Getting by in America for @nyindieguy productions. The book was published in 2011 by Picador USA.
– DreamWorks Animation has optioned Dav Pilkey’s graphic novel series Dog Man. Peter Hastings is attached to direct. The first in the series was published in August 2016 by Scholastic.
– BBC Film, Edith’s Daughter (Cynthia Erivo), and SunnyMarch (Benedict Cumberbatch) have optioned the biography At Her Majesty’s Request: An African Princess in Victorian England by Walter Dean Myers. Erivo will also star. The book was first published in 1999 by Scholastic.
– Gina Prince-Bythewood will script The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat, based on the novel by Edward Kelsey Moore. Tina Mabry will direct. Knopf published the book in March 2013.
Additional script sales can be found here on Script Pipeline.