Here are some of the most notable adaptations announced in July 2020:
– Lionsgate, Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films, and the New York Times Magazine are teaming to produce documentaries and other media based on The 1619 Project. The original project was directed by journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, who will also produce all future media.
– Weimaraner Republic Pictures has acquired the rights to Kate Spicer’s memoir Lost Dog: A Love Story. Bash Doran will script the adaptation. The book was published in the UK by Ebury Press in 2019.
– Concordia Studio picked up the rights to John B. Christiansen and Sharon N. Barnartt’s nonfiction book Deaf President Now! The 1988 Revolution At Gallaudet University. Nyle DiMarco will produce.
– Rachel Yoder will adapt her dark-comedy novel Nightbitch for Annapurna Pictures and Bond Group Entertainment. Amy Adams is set to produce and potentially star. The novel is set to be published by Doubleday next summer.
– Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg will script and produce an adaptation of Scotty Bowers’s Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars for Searchlight Pictures. The nonfiction book was previously adapted into a documentary by Matt Tyrnauer and was published in 2012 by grove Press.
– Universal Pictures, Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, and Issa Rae Productions acquired the rights to Leyna Krow’s novella Sinkhole. Peele and Rae will produce with Rae possibly starring. The literary journal Moss published Sinkhole in its Summer 2016 issue.
– Submarine optioned Matt Haig’s sci-fi/mystery novel Echo Boy. The film will be hybrid live-action/animation. Corgi published the novel in 2014.
– Sony, 3000 Pictures, and Heyday Films & Television acquired the rights to Kazuo Ishiguro’s upcoming novel Klara and the Sun, which Knopf will publish in March 2021.
– Simon Rich will adapt his short story “Stage 13” for Amblin Partners, Complete Fiction Pictures, and Working Title Films. Edgar Wright will executive produce and direct. The short was originally included in Rich’s collection Hits and Misses, published by Little, Brown in July 2018.
– Elisabeth Moss’s Love & Squalor Pictures acquired the film rights to two books in July: Eilene Zimmerman’s memoir Smacked: A Story of White-Collar Ambition, Addiction, and Tragedy, published in February 2020 by Random House, and Emily Ruskovich’s novel Idaho, also published by Random House in January 2017. Moss will produce both.
– Gregory Mcdonald’s Fletch will be rebooted over at Miramax Films, Points West Pictures, and Forward Entertainment. Jon Hamm will produce and star; Greg Mottola will direct. The second book in the series, Confess, Fletch, will serve as the source material. It was originally published in 1976 by Avon Books.
– Kyle Jarrow, Harry Cripps, and David Magee will script an animated adaptation of The Tiger’s Apprentice, the first in Laurence Yep’s trilogy of novels, for Paramount Animation and Jane Startz Productions. Carlos Baena will direct, and Henry Golding will star. The novel was published by HarperCollins in 2003.
– A pair of Stephen King novellas were optioned for $1: Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa Pictures optioned The Life Of Chuck, and Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Films optioned Rat. Both novellas were originally released as part of King’s collection If It Bleeds, published by Scribner in April 2020.
Additional script sales can be found here on Script Pipeline.