EXCLUSIVE: According to sources who spoke to Deadline, Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) is working on a film version of her debut novel of the same name for Netflix.
Netflix declined comment. But we hear that Brown will produce under her PCMA banner, with an eye to star. Four-time Oscar nominee Anthony McCarten (The Theory of Everything) is set to adapt the screenplay. Jonathan Eirich will produce for Rideback, with Nick Reynolds exec producing for the company at Millie Bobby Brown Developing Feature Adaptation Of Her Bestselling Debut Novel ‘Nineteen Steps’ For Netflix.
Inspired on the experiences of Brown’s own grandmother, William Morrow published the September 2023 New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller Nineteen Steps, a WWII novel. The narrative, which was written by Brown and Kathleen McGurl, centers on eighteen-year-old Nellie Morris, who lives in the Bethnal Green neighborhood of East London. Throughout the book, Nellie forges a new path in her relationship with American airman Ray while navigating the difficulties of wartime living, such as the possibility of bombs, rationing, and the mental anguish of being apart from loved ones. The Bethnal Green Tube accident, one of the worst civilian tragedies in the UK during the war, where 173 people perished in a crush as they sought refuge during an air attack, forms the central historical plot point of the book at Millie Bobby Brown Developing Feature Adaptation Of Her Bestselling Debut Novel ‘Nineteen Steps’ For Netflix.
A homegrown Netflix talent with deep ties to the streamer, Brown broke out with her role of Eleven on the Duffer Brothers’ global phenomenon Stranger Things, which returns for its fifth and final season next year. Her work there has earned her two Emmy nominations and two SAG Award nominations for Female Actor in a Drama Series, along with a win and a pair of other noms from SAG as part of the ensemble at Millie Bobby Brown Developing Feature Adaptation Of Her Bestselling Debut Novel ‘Nineteen Steps’ For Netflix.
On the film side, Brown most recently starred in Damsel, a Netflix fantasy pic which ranks at No. 7 on the service’s Most Popular Movies list, with 138 million views to date. Also previously seen in Netflix’s highly popular Enola Holmes films, along with blockbusters Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs. Kong, her other big upcoming project is Netflix’s flick The Electric State from the Russo Brothers, which has her starring alongside Chris Pratt and is expected to premiere in March 2025, we’re told at Millie Bobby Brown Developing Feature Adaptation Of Her Bestselling Debut Novel ‘Nineteen Steps’ For Netflix.
Oscar-nominated for his work on The Theory of Everything, Darkest Hour and The Two Popes, McCarten is also known for music biopics I Wanna Dance with Somebody and Bohemian Rhapsody on Whitney Houston and Freddie Mercury, respectively. Among the writer-producer’s other upcoming projects is The Collaboration, a film based on his own play, which examines the friendship between artists Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat at Millie Bobby Brown Developing Feature Adaptation Of Her Bestselling Debut Novel ‘Nineteen Steps’ For Netflix.
The producer of Disney’s new Haunted Mansion film and Aladdin, which grossed over a billion globally, as well as the It and The LEGO Movie franchises, Rideback is currently in post on Disney’s new Lilo & Stitch film, which just unveiled a trailer at D23 and is scheduled to hit theaters next summer. It should be noted that the company was founded in 2007 by esteemed producer Dan Lin, who in February departed to assume the top film post at Netflix. Jonathan Eirich and Michael LoFaso stepped up to serve as co-CEOs amid his exit, with Lin continuing to serve on the board of the company’s BIPOC content accelerator Rideback Rise at Millie Bobby Brown Developing Feature Adaptation Of Her Bestselling Debut Novel ‘Nineteen Steps’ For Netflix.
Brown is represented by WME and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller; McCarten by CAA and Myman Greenspan Fox.