Here are some of the most notable adaptations announced in September 2020:
– New Regency, Marc Platt Productions, and A24 have tapped Jackie Sibblies Drury to adapt Ronnie Spector and Vince Waldron’s memoir Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness. Zendaya is attached to executive produce and star. Onyx published the book in June 2004.
– Doug Wagner will script the adaptation for Salvage Title for Hideout Pictures. The novel is the first in a trilogy by Kevin Steverson. Theogony Books originally published the novel in September 2018.
– Wakaoo Films, Casa Media, and Immortal Studios have acquired Amish Tripathi’s novel Suheldev: The King Who Saved Indian. Senthil Kumar is set to direct. The book was originally published in June 2020 by Westland Publications.
– 1212 Entertainment and Wild Sheep Content will adapt Sega’s 2015 video game Yakuza. No writer has been attached yet.
– StudioCanal and Blueprint Pictures have optioned Matt Haig’s novel The Midnight Library. Viking published the novel this past month.
– AGC Studios, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment, and Polygram Entertainment have tapped Michelle Mulroney and Kieran Mulroney to adapt the memoir Journey of a Thousand Miles by classical pianist Lang Lang and David Ritz. Lang Lang will executive produce, and Howard will direct. The book was first published in English by Spiegel & Grau in July 2008.
– eOne and 3 Arts Entertainment have tapped Gavin Hood to script an adaptation of The Test, written by Sylvain Neuvel. Hood will also direct, and John Boyega and Payman Maadi are attached to star. Neuvel’s novella was originally self-published in 2017.
– Nazrin Chooudhury won out the assignment to adapt Tamer Elnoury’s memoir American Radical: Inside the World of an Undercover Muslim FBI Agent (written with Kevin Maurer) for Universal Pictures, Esmail Corp., and Anonymous Contest. Sam Esmail and Rami Malek will produce, with Esmail directing and Malek starring. Dutton originally published in October 2017.
– Over at Sistr Pictures, Taffy Brodesser-Akner will script a movie based on Matt Shaer’s 2014 GQ article “The Orthodox Hit Squad.”
– Michael Connelly will adapt his novel Fair Warning for Compelling Pictures. It was originally published in May 2020 by Little, Brown.
– Thomas Lennon will adapt his YA novel (the first in a series) Ronan Boyle and the Book of Riddles for DreamWorks Animation. Fergal Reilly will direct. The novel was originally published in 2019 by Abrams Books.
– Jane Austen’s 1817 novel Persuasion is getting an adaptation from Searchlight Pictures, Monumental Pictures, and BBC Films. Jessica Swale will script the adaptation, Mahalia Belo will direct, and Sarah Snook will star. The novel was posthumously by John Murray.
– Sony Pictures has acquired A.F. Steadman’s YA novel Skandar and the Unicorn Thief, the first of three upcoming novels to be published by Simon & Schuster Children’s UK and Simon & Schuster US.
– Ill Kippers Productions have optioned the film and TV rights for Jo Kaplan’s horror novel It Will Be Just Us. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau will produce. Crooked Lane Books published in September 2020.
– Mark Perez will adapt the Stray Dogs for Paramount Animation and Coin Operated. Described as Silence of the Lambs meets Lady and the Tramp, the comic book was created by Tony Fleecs and Trish Forstner and will be published by Image Comics next year.
– John Niven and Nick Ball will adapt Newark Minutemen for Fulwell 73 Productions. Leslie K. Barry’s novel will be published this month by Morgan James Publishing and is based on the real-life experiences of her uncle.
Additional script sales can be found here on Script Pipeline.