If after reading Hanya Yanagihara’s epic of post-collegiate New York life/malaise/growth — and the book that What Belongs to You author Garth Greenwell called “the most ambitious chronicle of the social and emotional lives of gay men to have emerged for many years” — you wondered how long it’d take before a movie adaptation is announced, you now almost have an answer. But the almost-answer is, in a sense, far better.
Yanagihara wrote on the book’s Facebook account today that it’s actually being optioned as a limited series — which has proven a far better format for novel adaptations, given how much gets cut to fit books into feature-length films, or how often those films on the flip-side include everything that happens in the book, in a manner that seems far too much like a summary of something far fuller.
As she notes in her FB post, it has a producer (a mega-producer, in fact: Scott Rudin) and director (Joe Mantello) behind it, and now just needs a home. Here’s her note (which also prompts readers to respond with their ideas of who should play Jude; it looks like the most common response in the comments section is Eddie Redmayne, though some people have also rooted for Ezra Miller (!), Rami Malek (!!) and Ben Whishaw (!!!) — not that these comments, or my escalating exclamation points, will have any influence whatsoever):
I’m very happy to say that ALL has been optioned by the producer Scott Rudin (The Social Network, The Grand Budapest Hotel, There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men, etc.) and the amazing theater director Joe Mantello (Wicked, The Humans, Blackbird, Assassins, Love! Valour! Compassion!, etc.) as a limited series. Now it just has to be sold to a network or streaming service — and we’ll let you know when or if it is. Thank you, as always, for all of your interest and your love for the boys, and keep your fingers crossed! (Also, who should play Jude?) — HY