Adaptations in Development

Here are some of the most notable adaptations announced in November 2022. Mandeville Films has tapped Emily Carmichael and Shantha Susman to script the adaptation of Naomi Novak’s A Deadly Education. Meera Menon will direct. Del Rey published the novel in September 2020. Cartel Entertainment, Screen Media Ventures, and Foresight Unlimited will adapt Bob Rich’s novel Looking Through Water. Rowdy Herrington is set to pen the screenplay, and Howard Deutch will direct. Michael Douglas and Cameron Douglas will star. Skyhorse Publishing published the novel in November 2015. 3dot productions and Made Up Stories has acquired Susanna Hoffs’ upcoming novel The Bird Has Flown, which Little, Brown and Company will publish in this coming April. Writers David Lee Miller and Steven Jay Rubin will script the animated adaptation of their children’s book The Cat Who Lived with Anne Frank for Regenerate Films. Rubin will executive produce, and Miller will co-direct with…

Here are some of the most notable adaptations announced in October 2022. Cult icon John Waters will write/direct an adaptation of his novel Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance for Village Roadshow. The novel was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux last May. Temple Hill Productions has tapped Carter Blanchard to script the adaptation of Adam Cesare’s novel Clown in a Cornfield. Eli Craig will direct. HarperTeen published in August 2020. Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi will write and direct the adaptation of journalist Peter Pomerantsev’s “We Can Only Be Enemies” for AC Studios and AR Content. The article was originally published in The Atlantic in May of this year. Louverture Films, Plan B Entertainment, and AC Studios have picked up Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys. RaMell Ross will direct and co-write alongside Joslyn Barnes. The novel was originally published by Doubleday in July 2019. Lonetree Entertainment has acquired the rights to Hailey Piper’s supernatural…

Here are some of the most notable adaptations announced in September 2022. Writer/director Sofia Coppola has found her next project: an adaptation of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley’s memoir Elvis and Me. Stage 6 Films, American Zoetrope, and The Apartment Pictures are on to produce, and A24 will distribute. The memoir was published in 1985 by Berkley Books. Sony has acquired the film rights for Tarzan from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ estate. The 1912 original Tarzan of the Apes was first serialized in the pulp magazine The All-Story before being released as a novel in 1914 and spawning a series. Picturestart has tapped writer J.C. Lee to adapt Xiran Jay Zhao’s YA novel Iron Widow. Penguin Teen published the novel in September 2021. Monarch Media, Point Grey Pictures (Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg), and Lylas Pictures have acquired Sarah Leavitt’s graphic novel/memoir Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me. Leah Nelson will…

Here are some of the most notable adaptations announced in August 2022. Screenwriters Adam Cooper and Bill Collage will adapt E.O. Chirovici’s novel The Book of Mirrors (now under the title Sleeping Dogs) for Nickel City Pictures, New Leaf Literary & Media, and Highland Film Group. Cooper will also direct, and Russell Crowe will star. The novel was originally published by Atria/Emily Bestler Books in February 2017. Michael Frank will adapt his novel What Is Missing for Morning Moon Productions. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux published in October 2019. Sony and 21 Laps are making a film adaptation of Riley Sager’s Home Before Dark. Blair Butler will provide the screenplay, and Patrick Brice will direct. Dutton Books published the novel in June 2020. Sony, Fuller Media, and Fifty-Fifty Films have acquired Madison Lawson’s upcoming novel The Registration. Ben Collins and Luke Piortrowski will write the script, and Sydney Sweeney will produce…

Here are some of the most notable adaptations announced in July 2022. Disney, 2DUX² (Marc Forster), and Netter Productions will adapt Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. David Magee will write the script and Forster will direct. The novel was published in 2008 by HarperCollins. Kingdom Story Company and Lionsgate have tapped screenwriter Jason Hall to pen the adaptation of Eric Blehm’s Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team SIX Operator Adam Brown. The nonfiction book was published in 2012 by the Doubleday Religious Publishing Group. Disney and Olive Bridge Entertainment will adapt Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Princess and the Pea” under the title Penelope. Robert Sudduth will provide the script, and Ingrid Michaelson and Larry O’Keefe will write original songs. The fairy tale was first published in Andersen’s collection Tales, Told for Children in 1835. Kosmos Studios and Stone Village Pictures have tapped screenwriters Nina Gwyn…

Here are some of the most notable adaptations announced in June 2022. New Regency and Syndicate Entertainment have picked up The Dog Stars. Mark L. Smith wrote the script, based on the novel by Peter Heller. Knopf published the source material in August 2012. Screen Gems, 2.0 Entertainment, and Jesus & Mary have tapped Chuck MacLean to write The Pope’s Exorcist. Russell Crowe will star. The film will be based on Father Gabriele Amorth’s memoirs An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories, both published by Ignatius Press (in 1999 and 2002, respectively). Lionsgate, Temple Hill Productions, and Hudson Exports will adapt Kayvion Lewis’s upcoming novel Thieves’ Gambit for film. Steven Caple Jr. will produce and direct. Nancy Paulsen/Penguin will publish the YA novel in Fall 2023. Lionsgate will also team with Mandeville Films to adapt Emma Straub’s This Time Tomorrow, which Riverhead Books published last May. Blumhouse…

Here are some of the most notable adaptations announced in May 2022. Sony Pictures International has picked up author Chetan Bhagat’s novel One Indian Girl, which was published by Indian publishing company Rupa & Co. in 2016. Bleeker Street Entertainment, Ten Acre Films, and Rockhill Studios are adapting Steven Dietz’s play Shooting Star for the screen under the new title What Happens Later. Dietz and Kirk Lynn will be providing the screenplay. Meg Ryan will direct, as well as star alongside David Duchovny. A Reddit post is getting the movie treatment! 3000 Pictures, Lit Entertainment Group, and Ground Control are producing I Think My Mother-In-Law Is Trying to Kill Me, based on Nick Moorefox’s 2019 short story that he posted on the website before it went viral. Jessica Knoll has been tapped to write the script. State Street Pictures and Scout Comics have optioned the graphic novel Assassin & Son…

Here are some of the most notable adaptations announced in April 2022. Blake Lively will make her directorial debut with an adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Seconds. Searchlight Pictures and Marc Platt Productions will produce alongside Edgar Wright, who will also provide the script. Ballantine Books published the graphic novel in 2014. Writers John College and Edward Bond will adapt Homer’s Odyssey for Red Wave Films and Picomedia. Uberto Pasolini will produce and direct, and Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes are attached to star. The Imaginarium and Wildgaze Films will adapt Elizabeth McCracken’s The Giant’s House. Nick Hornby will write the script, and Andy Serkis will direct. The Dial Press published the novel in 1996. Arcana Studios and MastersFX are working on an adaptation of the graphic novel American Wasteland from creator R.D. Hall and artists Andrew Mangum and Mark Kidwell. Arcane also published the book in 2011. Scott Free…

Here are some of the most notable adaptations announced in March 2022. MGM and Weed Road Pictures (Akiva Goldsman) will adapt Dan Brown’s Wild Symphony into an animated feature with Brown also providing the script. Rodale Kids published the children’s book in September 2020. Neon, Seaview, and Intellectual Property Group have tapped Sarah DeLappe to script an adaptation of Dorothy Baker’s novel Cassandra at the Wedding. The novel was originally published in 1962, with a NYRB Classics reprint released in 2012. Warner Bros., Studio 8, and Black Mask Studios have tapped Gerard McMurray to write and direct an adaptation of the graphic novel Black, written by Kwanza Osajyefo and Tim Smith 3 and illustrated by Chary Randolph. Black Mask published the series in 2016. Sabir Pirzada will script a Nova project for Marvel Studios as either a feature or TV series. The character was created in 1976 by Marc Wolfman…

Here are some of the most notable adaptations announced in February 2022. - Steven Spielberg will produce and direct a new Bullitt movie! The 1968 film was based on Robert L. Fish’s 1963 novel Mute Witness, with a screenplay by Alan R. Trustman and Harry Kleiner. Josh Singer will script the adaptation. Doubleday published the original book. - BRON Studios and STORY Collective have tapped Keenan Scott II to adapt JJ Bola’s recent novel The Selfless Act of Breathing. Atria Books published last month. - Twentieth Century Studios has acquired the rights to Marion Meade’s Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase. James Mangold will produce and direct. HarperCollins first published the book in October 1995. - Writer/director Aziz Ansari will turn Atul Gawande’s nonfiction Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End for Searchlight Pictures. Ansari will star alongside Bill Murray. Gawande’s book was published in October 2014 by…