Could Hulus Upcoming Sally Rooney Adaptation Be Its Next Big Hit?
This was bound to happen eventually, right? On Thursday, Hulu announced its order for a series adapt..
This was bound to happen eventually, right? On Thursday, Hulu announced its order for a series adaptation of Normal People, the best-selling novel by millennial Irish author Sally Rooney, the latest literary sensation. Rooneys first novel, Conversations With Friends, debuted in 2017; she released Normal People a little over a year later. Now the latter novel will become a 12-episode, half-hour drama on Hulu.
Normal People captures a complicated relationship between the lonely, proud, intimidating Marianne and the more popular Connell, from their teen years in small-town Ireland through college. (The two had an improbable, secret affair in high school.) Lenny Abrahamson (Room) will direct the series alongside British TV and theater director Hettie Macdonald; Abrahamson will helm the first six episodes, with Macdonald taking over for the final six. Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal will star as Marianne and Connell.
Rooney will also adapt the series alongside writers Alice Birch and Mark ORowe. “As a longtime admirer of Lenny Abrahamsons work, its a special privilege for me to be working alongside him on the adaptation of Normal People. I couldnt be happier with the cast and team weve put together, and Im very excited to watch them bringing new life to the story onscreen,” Rooney said. Rooney and Abrahamson will also executive produce, with the series premiere set for 2020.
In the past year, Hulu has added a number of buzzy projects to its originals slate—many based on best-selling novels. Included in this slate was The Handmaids Tale, which swept the 2017 Emmys and constituted the streamers first big hit. Since then, the streamer has been on a development winning streak, investing in highly anticipated projects like Shrill, the Lindy West memoir-based series that premiered earlier this spring; the upcoming Kate McKinnon series The Dropout, which has its origins in a podcast about Elizabeth Holmes; and Little Fires Everywhere, another literary adaptation based on the novel by Celeste Ng. Which makes sense; with more programs on TV and streaming than ever before, I.P. with built-in viewership is at a premium. Hulu seems to know that just as well as anyone—and with this latest get, it seems even better poised to compete.
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