Warner Bros. My What If Year, Apple’s Little Santa
Warner Bros. has picked up the hilarious midlife crisis memoir My What If Year with America Ferrera (Barbie) on board to produce the feature adaptation. Described as this generation’s Eat, Pray, Love, Alisha Fernandez Miranda’s memoir chronicles her bold decision, on the cusp of turning 40, to chase the dreams she never pursued, from exploring Broadway theatre to immersing herself in London’s art scene. Miranda served as a board member of Ferrera’s nonprofit, Poderistas, adding an extra layer of authenticity to Ferrera’s behind-the-scenes involvement.
Apple Original Films is getting into the holiday spirit early, set to adapt the children’s book Little Santa with Oscar winner Peter Baynton (dir. Apple’s The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse) attached to direct. The animated coming-of-age film will answer the age-old question of how Santa became Santa. Toy Story 4 writer Martin Hynes is attached to adapt the screenplay.
AMC is developing a series adaptation of Andrew Mayne’s Amazon Charts bestseller, The Naturalist book series. The series is a procedural that follows a brilliant biologist who uses the laws of animal behavior to catch human predators. The project is written by Andrew Karlsruher (Wri: CSI: Cyber).
Peacock has ordered Dungeon Crawler Carl, a live-action adaptation of Matt Dinniman’s LitRPG series from Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door company. The apocalyptic sci-fi comedy follows a Coast Guard vet and a talking cat surviving televised alien games. MacFarlane has a charm in making fluffy things come alive in the most irreverent ways.