The team behind “Gossip Girl” and “The O.C.” have signed on to another teen-centric project. Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz will pen an adaptation of “13 Minutes,” a British YA novel by Sarah Pinborough released earlier this year. Netflix secured rights to the project after a bidding war, The Hollywood Reporter writes.
Savage and Schwartz will produce the film via their Fake Empire banner. The duo are joined by Michael De Luca and Underground’s Trevor Engelson, while De Luca Productions’ executive Lucy Kitada and Fake Empire’s Lis Rowinski will serve as executive producers.
“13 Minutes” sounds slightly darker than the fare Savage and Schwartz are best known for. The YA novel is classified as a crime/psychological thriller, and “centers on a popular high school student who dies under suspicious circumstances for 13 minutes before she is revived. The girl’s former best friend attempts to get back into her good graces by solving this would-be murder, but unwittingly steps into a hornet’s nest of social media driven manipulation and suburban secrets that puts her own life at risk.” Sounds juicy — and those familiar with “Gossip Girl” and “The O.C.” know that Savage and Schwartz are masters of the art of crafting deliciously soapy narratives with heart.
Last fall, Netflix announced it would be adapting another YA novel, “13 Reasons Why.” (Note to authors who want their stories given the Netflix treatment: include the number 13 in your title.) The streaming behemoth gave a straight-to-series order for the project, which is based on a 2005 best-selling novel of the same name. The book is about the suicide of a teen girl and the reasons she chose to end her life. Tom McCarthy (“Spotlight”) has been inked to helm the first two episodes of the series, and Selena Gomez will EP.
Savage and Schwartz are also developing the “Calendar Girl” book series for ABC Signature. The stories center on Mia Saunders, who enters the world of high-priced sex work to help pay off her father’s gambling debts.
