EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has enlisted Julia Hart (I’m Your Woman) to direct a feature adaptation of Better Than the Movies, the bestselling YA com-com novel from Lynn Painter that’s celebrating its fifth anniversary.
A #1 New York Times bestseller, Better Than the Movies is a love letter to romantic comedies, in which senior Liz Buxbaum relies on her obsession with rom-com movies to get the attention of her untouchable crush, with an assist from her annoying but cute next-door neighbor. The book pays homage to all the romance tropes — fake relationship, enemies to lovers, boy next door — but throws them on their head for a new take on what happily ever after looks like.
Published by Simon & Schuster, the book has appeared on the New York Times monthly YA paperback list for 41 months and its weekly YA hardcover list for 12 weeks.
In addition to directing, Hart is a co-writer on the project, having completed one draft with husband and creative partner Jordan Horowitz. Heather Flanders also completed a draft. Horowitz will produce for Original Headquarters, alongside Shauna Phelan.
Better Than the Movies marks the second Original Headquarters project at Netflix, following the Hart-helmed Don’t Say Good Luck, a teen drama starring Sunny Sandler, which releases August 14. Hart and Horowitz also co-wrote that title, produced by Adam and Jackie Sandler, Horowitz, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Fred Berger.
Hart broke out with her feature directorial debut, Miss Stevens, a road-trip dramedy starring Lily Rabe, Timothée Chalamet, and Lili Reinhart, which premiered at SXSW in 2016. Following that film up with Fast Color, a genre-bender starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw which also premiered at the Austin, TX festival, her other credits as director include Prime Video’s crime drama I’m Your Woman starring Rachel Brosnahan, plus the teen titles Stargirl and Hollywood Stargirl for Disney+. She is repped by CAA and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, as is Horowitz.
A writer from Illinois, Painter recently set up a feature adaptation of her bestseller Fake Skating at Sony, with Will Gluck’s Olive Bridge set to produce, as we first reported.