EXCLUSIVE: is creating a TV adaptation of Stephen Lloyd Jones’ The String Diaries with Geek Girl producer RubyRock Photos and Sony Studios.
RubyRock boss Zoë Rocha revealed the early-stage mission to Deadline alongside an adaptation of Justin Somper’s Vampirates e-book sequence, whereas lifting the lid on Netflix‘s upcoming Geek Woman adaptation.
Lightfoot, who show-ran Apple TV+’s Shantaram and Netflix’s The Punisher, is at present penning the pilot and the mission doesn’t but have a purchaser. Sony Studios can be connected.
The String Diaries was revealed a decade in the past and is a supernatural thriller following a household that come into possession of diaries handed down from mom to daughter for the reason that nineteenth century. Lloyd Jones’ debut extends from the current day to Oxford within the Nineteen Seventies to Hungary on the flip of the nineteenth century, tracing again to a person from an historical royal household with a consuming ardour.
Lightfoot can be engaged on MGM+/Prime Video’s Spider-Man spin-off Noir, a reside motion sequence that’s set to star Nicolas Cage.
Books which have “slipped the cracks”
The String Diaries mission speaks to RubyRock’s technique to adapt novels that will have “slipped the cracks 5 to 10 years in the past” in what’s an intensely aggressive e-book market, Rocha mentioned. “Every little thing is happening pre-empts and is so past our worth bracket however there’s a lot content material on the market that slips by way of,” she added. “[Slightly older novels] are a very good place to look.”
With this in thoughts, RubyRock is creating a sequence adaptation of the Vampirates novels, six books revealed between 2005 and 2011 about twins who get separated at sea and are picked up by two very completely different ships. RubyRock is working with LA’s Capricornia Content material and Australia’s Princess Photos on the variation, and the producers are looking for a showrunner.
Rocha praised the “lavish world” created by Somper and mentioned the books stand for “all the things we are attempting to develop on the firm,” which was launched 5 years in the past by the Moone Boy exec.
“We need to make stuff that’s entertaining and humorous however has some nutritional vitamins within the ice cream,” added Rocha. “That is escapist and delightful however makes you assume.”
‘Geek Woman’
Geek Woman. Picture: Netflix
Way more instantly for RubyRock is Netflix’s Geek Girl, the variation of Holly Smale’s first novel in a e-book sequence a couple of neurodivergent teen mannequin, which has been made with Canada’s Waterside Studios and Plane Photos and can launch on Could 30.
Starring Home of the Dragon’s Emily Carey and Business’s Sarah Parish and co-adapted by Smale, the story follows Harriet Manners, whose life is turned the wrong way up when she is scouted to be a mannequin and embarks on a life-affirming journey of self-discovery as she balances highschool and excessive vogue.
The present is being made in a “bubble of its personal,” Rocha mentioned, however she shared a need to duplicate a “fraction of the success” of Netflix YA smash Heartstopper, coming at a time when YA reveals are dominating worldwide streamer charts resembling Prime Video’s Maxton Hall – The World Between Us, which has simply develop into Amazon’s most profitable worldwide present of all time in its first week.
“When [Netflix] made Heartstopper that they had the pure intent of claiming, ‘It is a factor we’re doing in our bubble’ after which it caught the zeitgeist,” she added. “We needed that very same feeling of making one thing in somewhat bubble of its personal after which seeing what occurs.”
Geek Woman could possibly be a giant leap forwards for neurodivergent illustration on TV however Rocha mentioned the creators have been at pains to verify the protagonist’s autism was incidental to the plot, whereas script consultants helped guarantee they didn’t “lean into stereotypes or do something reductive.”
Smale herself is neurodivergent however was identified just a few years in the past aged 39, after she had written Geek Woman.
“Harriet is many issues and a kind of issues is neurodivergent however that’s not her solely defining attribute,” mentioned Rocha. “We needed to do a neurodivergent present that makes a big part of the viewers really feel seen however we additionally needed to create one thing industrial that appeals to everybody.”
The cut-throat world of vogue additionally takes up a good bit of Geek Woman’s airspace. For this factor, Rocha had tonnes of expertise to attract from her father and sister, who’re each vogue designers.
The crew had entry to her former BFA Designer of the Yr father John Rocha’s archive and used consultants with a purpose to “give as robust a illustration throughout the entire of the style business as attainable.”
She acknowledged the style world has modified for the reason that days her 70-year-old father was rising by way of the ranks.
“The way in which fashions have been scouted was once old school however this has moved on a lot,” she added. “We’ve got an obligation of care to younger folks coming into that world and we needed to the touch on a few of these themes of how managing folks and taking care of expertise has shifted. We needed folks to know that is now a world they might work in.”
