An “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” movie is finally on the way. In the almost 50 years since the iconic young adult novel was first published, author Judy Blume has famously refused film adaptation offers — until now. Blume has granted the screen rights to “Edge of Seventeen” writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig and prolific producer James L. Brooks. Deadline broke the news.
The story of 12-year-old Margaret, Blume’s book traces the everyday highs and lows of that odd age between girlhood and adolescence. The 1970 novel gave a voice to tween girls and emphasized that, though they are young, they have as much feeling and insight as any adult. As its title suggests, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” also follows Margaret — the child of a secular Christian mother and Jewish father — as she figures out her own faith.
The once-controversial book has been banned by many libraries, and ranks among Time’s top 100 fiction books written in English since 1923.
“For the first time since I’d started writing, I let go and this story came pouring out. I felt as if I’d always known Margaret,” Blume has said of the book. “When I was in sixth grade, I longed to develop physically like my classmates. I tried doing exercises, resorted to stuffing my bra, and lied about getting my period. And like Margaret, I had a very personal relationship with God that had little to do with organized religion. God was my friend and confidant.”
The story of a young woman coming of age is familiar terrain for both Fremon Craig and Brooks: they collaborated on 2016’s “Edge of Seventeen.” The Hailee Steinfeld-starrer is about angsty high schooler Nadine, whose only source of comfort is her best friend. Things take a turn for the worse when said bestie begins dating Nadine’s older, popular brother.
“It is this right of passage for women and girls,” Fremon Craig told Deadline of “Margaret.” “It’s rare for me to run into a woman or girl who hasn’t read it and every time I’ve mentioned it to a woman, they clutch their heart and let out this joyful gasp,” she revealed. “There’s something so timely and full of truth and I remember for me that at that age, it felt like a life raft at a time when you’re lost and searching and unsure. This book comes along and tells you you’re not alone. Women remember where they were when they read it. I can’t think of another book you can say that about.”
Fremon Craig will adapt and helm “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” and Brooks and his Grace Films are producing. Fremon Craig and Blume will produce as well.
Fremon Craig, whose upcoming projects include an adaptation of memoir “Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me,” decided to pursue the rights to “Are You There God?” after rereading the book as an adult and seeing a Blume tweet hinting that she may be ready to make the movie.
“I was surprised when I read it, how much it took me back and that I hadn’t forgotten those feelings,” the “Post Grad” writer recalled. “They live in me forever. And the strangest and most serendipitous thing happened with Judy’s Tweet, that she was considering opening up her titles to be adapted. I read this at 3 AM, and wrote my reps in the middle of the night: do whatever you can to get this. Then I wrote a long and passionate email to her, telling her what her books meant to me, particularly ‘Margaret,’ how it came along at a time when I needed it most. She was the first author who made me fall in love with books and by extension, film.”
Fremon Craig continued, “I got the greatest email from Judy where she said if someone were to make a film of one of her books, she hoped it would have the same tone and feeling that ‘The Edge of Seventeen’ had. It’s maybe the greatest compliment I’ve ever gotten, because she has always been a North star for me as a writer. What’s helpful is that everybody who reads it sees themselves in it. I read it in the late ’80s, and didn’t know it was written in 1970,” she said. “[Blume] captured something universal and timeless enough that it transcends all that. What I’m going to need is a great 12-year-old actress to play Margaret.”
