Emily Henry‘s new bestseller “Funny Story” is her latest project to get the feature film treatment — and this time, the author herself is doing the adapting.
Produced by Lyrical Media and Ryder Picture Company, the movie version of “Funny Story” will be written by Henry and follow the plot in her rom-com novel of the same name, which was released April 23 by Penguin Random House.
Described as “a shimmering, joyful tale about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common,” Funny Story” follows Daphne, a children’s librarian coping with her broken engagement to Peter, who realized too late that he loved his childhood best friend, Petra. Stranded in her ex’s lakeside hometown, Daphne becomes roommates with Petra’s ex, Miles, and despite their differences, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan to get back at…or with their exes.
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Henry is writing the script for the “Funny Story” movie, making this the first adaptation of her works that she is adapting by herself, with Lyrical Media’s Alexander Black and Natalie Sellers, as well as RPC’s Aaron Ryder and Andrew Swett, attached to produce the film.
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Lyrical’s Jon Rosenberg and Henry are set to executive produce, with RPC’s Emma Rappold serving as co-producer. A director is not yet attached.
“Funny Story” debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times and USA Today Bestsellers lists, and has already sold over 800,000 copies in North America since its publication. Henry’s total sales across all novels have topped more than 7.5 million in North America.
Henry’s previous bestselling romance books “People We Meet on Vacation,” “Book Lovers” and “Beach Read” are currently being adapted into films, and her novel “Happy Place” is now in the works as a TV series adaptation at Netflix produced by Jennifer Lopez, with Henry set to co-write the pilot for the potential show.
Lyrical Media and RPC recently signed a first-look deal following their collaborations on the upcoming films “Onslaught” from Adam Wingard and “The Death of Robin Hood” from Michael Sarnoski, starring Hugh Jackman and Jodie Comer, both of which will be distributed by A24.
Together, the duo of companies have also produced “Bruiser,” a coming-of-age drama directed by Miles Warren and starring Jayln Hall, Trevante Rhodes, and Shamier Anderson about generational trauma and black masculinity, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and launched on Hulu in February 2023.
Henry is repped by UTA and Taylor Haggerty of Root Literary.