Kenyan film director Wanuri Kahiu and ‘Stranger Things’ actress Millie Bobby Brown are teaming up to adapt acclaimed YA novel ‘The Thing About Jellyfish’ by Ali Benjamin.
In an article by The Hollywood Reporter, Universal is said to have acquired the rights to the 2015 book published by Little Brown and is developing the adaptation with producers Gigi Pritzker and Rachel Shane, Bruna Papandrea, and actress Reese Witherspoon.
Jellyfish tells the story of a young girl named Suzy as she enters seventh grade. When her former best friend dies in a drowning accident and not believing her mother who says that sometimes “these things happen” Suzy becomes convinced that the true cause of the tragedy was a rare jellyfish sting. She retreats into a silent world of her imagination and begins crafting a globe-trotting plan to prove her theory, with the book exploring the ideas of life and death, the frailty of friendships and the potential of hope right next door.
The book was Benjamin’s debut novel. It was not only a commercial success but also a literary smash, named as a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award. Brown is attached to play Suzy.
Brown, 15, is one of the stars of ‘Stranger Things’, whose season three arrives July, and stars in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which hits the big screen May 31.
Kahiu, 39, wrote and directed the LGBTQ film Rafiki, which made history last year as being the first Kenyan film to screen at the Cannes Film Festival even as the movie was banned in Kenya.
