EXCLUSIVE: Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) is working on a film adaptation of her best-selling debut novel, Nineteen Steps, for Netflix. Sources tell Deadline that Brown is developing the project.
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.
A New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller published by William Morrow in September 2023, Nineteen Steps is a WWII novel drawing on the experiences of Brown’s own grandmother. Written by Brown and Kathleen McGurl, the story follows Nellie Morris, an 18-year-old girl living in the East London neighborhood of Bethnal Green. Over the course of the book, Nellie navigates the challenges of wartime life, including the threat of bombings, rationing, and the emotional turmoil of being separated from loved ones, while charting a new romance with American airman Ray. At the historical core of the novel is the Bethnal Green Tube disaster, one of the worst civilian disasters in the UK during the war, where 173 people were killed in a crush as they sought shelter during an air raid 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.
McCarten is represented by CAA and Myman Greenspan Fox, while Brown is represented by WME and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller.
