We've had to wait a while for Debra Granik's follow up to 2018's excellent father/daughter story Leave No Trace. But she's now narrowing in on her next film, looking to adapt Una LaMarche’s YA novel Like No Other.
Granik and Still Rolling Productions' Anne Rosellini nabbed the option for the book, and plan to co-write the script. LaMarche’s 2015 tome is described as a contemporary take on West Side Story. It watches as the unlikely paths of a Hasidic girl and a secular boy meet on Eastern Parkway and blossom into a forbidden romance.
"We were pulled in immediately by the strength and complexity of young Devorah and the journey she takes to find her path in life,” say Granik, Rosellini, and fellow producer Alix Madigan in a joint statement. "The world Una creates is one we want to live in – where unexpected friendships are made and rigidity gives way to allowing for love and for the acceptance of the ‘other’."
Given Granik's eye for spotting great actors early in their career (think Winter's Bone), we've got high hopes for this one.