Here are some of the most notable adaptations announced in November 2020: - MGM, Plan B Entertainment (Brad Pitt’s production company), and Harpo Films (Oprah Winfrey) have acquired Ta-Nehisi Coates’ debut novel The Water Dancer. Coates will adapt the script. One World published the novel in September 2019. - Over at Universal Pictures, Molly Smith Metzler has been tapped to script the adaptation of Gayle Tzemach Lemmon’s nonfiction novel Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield. Lesli Linka Glatter will direct. Harper first published the book in April 2015. - Moving Image Productions has optioned Louise Candlish’s upcoming noir/thriller The Other Passenger. Joseph Cross will produce and direct. Simon & Schuster will publish the novel in July 2021. - Frenesy (Luca Guadagnino) and Searchlight Pictures have assigned Matthew López to script the adaptation of Christopher Castellani’s Leading Men. The novel was…
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Here are some of the most notable adaptations announced in October 2020: - John Ridley will write and direct a paranormal thriller film based on Saleah Blancaflor’s article “Project Poltergeist” for Blumhouse Productions and Truly*Adventurous. Truly*Adventurous published the article in May 2020. - Mark Bomback will script the adaptation of R.J. Palacio’s White Bird: A Wonder Story for Lionsgate and Mandeville Films. Marc Forster will direct. Alfred A. Knopf published the graphic novel in October 2020. - Catya McMullen’s Broadway play Georgia Mertching Is Dead is getting a movie adaptation from Star Thrower Entertainment. McMullen will script, and Andrea Savage will direct. - Jayson Rothwell will adapt Horace Greasley’s WWII memoir Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell? (written with Ken Scott) for Monarch Media. John Blake published in September 2013. - Over at BBC Films, Courttia Newland will adapt Augustown, written by Kei Miller. The novel was published in…
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- Grand Prize Winners - Literary Vermilion by Vimi Bajaj Vimi Bajaj is a writer and physician based in Chicago. A graduate of The Bennington Writing Seminars, she writes about the various ways that misogyny and patriarchal mindsets are embedded within the Indian culture. Her work has been published in The Writer’s Chronicle, The Asian American Literary Review, The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review, Panorama, the Journal of Intelligent Travel, and The Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology 2016. In addition, her short story, Nadine, is forthcoming as an Audible Original. Her novel, Vermilion is a work of international literary fiction and takes place in modern day India, at a time when violence against women has reached critical mass. Ranging from the newsrooms of the New India to the ‘whiskey parties’ of the Delhi elite and the tea-stall conversations of the urban poor, Vermilion is an exploration of an India where even the poor have cell phones and internet access, where village rituals coincide with cable…
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- Winner - This is How I Save My Life: From California to India, a True Story of Finding Everything When You are Willing to Try Anything by Amy B. Scher Amy B. Scher is an award-winning and bestselling author. She’s been featured in Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, CNN, CBS, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Rumpus and more. Scher was also named one of Advocate’s “40 Under 40.” Amy’s books have been translated into thirteen languages and endorsed by notable authors such as Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love); Vikas Swarup (Slumdog Millionaire); and Sanjiv Chopra, MD, MACP, Harvard Medical School and (Brotherhood with Deepak Chopra). With a background in both publishing and marketing, Amy has been recognized for her unique ability to bridge the gap between the craft of writing and the business of being an author. She is proud to serve on the associate board for Literacy Partners…
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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…
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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.…
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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…
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Here are some of the most notable adaptations announced in June 2020: - Jesse James Films has optioned the film and TV rights to Shawn Amos’s children’s novel Cookies & Milk. Little, Brown will publish the book in Spring 2022. - Anthony McCarten will adapt his nonfiction novel Wednesday at Warren’s, Friday at Bill’s for Compelling Pictures and Muse of Fire Productions. The book (soon-to-be published by Harper Collins) is based on the the 30-year friendship between Bill Gates and Warren Buffett and their philanthropic endeavors. - Anna Halberg and Spenser Cohen will script the Horoscope adaptation for Screen Gems and Alloy Entertainment. Nicholas Adams’s YA horror novel was published by HarperCollins in 1992. - Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal’s novel I’m Not Dying with You Tonight has been picked up by Prominent Productions and Radar Pictures. The YA novel was published by Sourcebooks Fire in 2019. - D.H. Lawrence’s…
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Here are some of the most notable adaptations announced in May 2020: - Steven A. Finly will adapt Almythea for Rio Vista Universal and PorchLight Entertainment. Bruce Logan will direct, with Priscilla Presley executive producing. The novels were written and created by A.J. Cootes and the first in the series, Almythea: Rise of Wingtar was published by BCG Publishing in 2019. - Blumhouse Productions and Epic Magazine have tapped Issa López to script and direct Our Lady of Tears, based on an article written by Daniel Hernandez and published by Epic Magazine and Vox. - Rachel Hirons will adapt Sarah Knight’s book The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck for New Line Cinema and Five Quarters Entertainment. The satirical self-help book was published by Little, Brown in December 2015. - Geoff Rodkey will adapt his middle-grade novel We’re Not from Here for Columbia Pictures and Olive Bridge Entertainment. Mike…
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Here are some of the most notable adaptations announced in April 2020: - Christy Hall has been tapped to adapt Stephen King’s novel The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon for Village Roadshow Pictures, Stampede Ventures, and Vertigo Entertainment. The novel was originally published by Scribner in 1999. - Jeff Nichols will write and direct The Yankee Comandante, adapted from David Grann’s New Yorker article. Adam Driver will star, and Imperative Entertainment and 30WEST will produce. - Claire North’s sci-fi novel The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is getting an adaptation from Amblin Partners, Blueprint Pictures, and Oddball Entertainment. Melissa Iqbal will script, and Wes Ball will direct. The novel was published in April 2014 by Orbit Books in the UK and Redhook Books in the US. - Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions has acquired Lawrence Wright’s novel The End of October. Scott to produce, possibly direct as well. The…
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