StudioCanal and Deadpan Pictures are developing a live-action television adaptation of Katie Kirby’s bestselling The Extremely Embarrassing Life of Lottie Brooks book series.
Josie Long, whose credits include Skins, and playwright and screenwriter Holly Phillips, whose credits include The Athena, Get Even and Dance Academy, are adapting the books for television.
Ailish McElmeel is producing for Deadpan Pictures, the company behind Moone Boy and Video Nasty.
M-K Kennedy and Paul Gilbert are overseeing the project for StudioCanal, with Sarah Reese Geffroy overseeing for StudioCanal Stories, the company’s in-house book-to-screen label. StudioCanal Stories negotiated the rights to the book series. StudioCanal Kids & Family will handle worldwide merchandising and licensing.
Kirby’s illustrated book series follows the misadventures of the titular 11-and-three-quarters-year-old protagonist as she navigates the awkward transition to secondary school. McElmeel describes the series as a “pre-teen Bridget Jones.”
Published by Puffin, the nine books of the Lottie Brooks series have been translated into more than 30 languages and have sold more than 3 million copies worldwide.
The television project marks another book-to-screen development for StudioCanal Stories, the label the European studio set up in 2024 to focus on adapting literary properties across film and television. StudioCanal is accustomed to literary adaptations, with its successful Paddington franchise and TV adaptations including the BBC series War of the Worlds and the upcoming limited series How to Stop Time, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, and based on the novel by Matt Haig.
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