Beatrice Kitsos (
"Percy Jackson and the Olympians") and
David Iacono (
"Jurassic World Rebirth") have landed the lead roles in the Netflix adaptation of
Lynn Painter's #1 New York Times bestselling BookTok novel
"Better Than the Movies". The film will be directed by
Julia Hart (
"Don't Say Good Luck") from a script by
Heather Flanders and Hart &
Jordan Horowitz.
The romantic comedy follows Liz Buxbaum (Kitsos), whose obsession with rom-com movies proves very helpful when she schemes with her annoying but cute next-door neighbor (Iacono) to get the attention of her untouchable crush. The film pays homage to all the romance tropes — fake relationship, enemies to lovers, boy next door — but turns them on their heads in this new take on what happily ever after looks like.
The book made the New York Times monthly YA paperback list for 44 consecutive months and its weekly YA hardcover list for 20 weeks. The BookTok community pushed hard for Iacono to nab the role of Liz's neighbor Wes Bennett, creating reels of the dream casting before the adaptation was announced. Meanwhile, Kitsos herself posted on Instagram asking to audition for the adaptation, when fans submitted her for Liz.
This is the second project based on
Lynn Painter's novels currently in the works. The other one is Sony's adaptation of the writer's
"Fake Skating", which will be directed by
Josh Boone (
"The Fault in Our Stars").
Hart and
Jordan Horowitz are producing via Original Headquarters, alongside
Shauna Phelan and
Melanie Krauss.
