Hello, Universe: Netflix to adapt award-winning novel into film
David Farnor | On 23, May 2019
Netflix is adapting the award-winning novel Hello, Universe into a new film.
The 2018 Newbery Award winning, New York Times bestselling novel, written by Erin Entrada Kelly, will be turned into a live action family movie for the streaming giant. Playwright and screenwriter Michael Golamco (Always Be My Maybe) will adapt the book and Forest Whitaker and Nina Yang Bongiovi (Fruitvale Station, Roxanne Roxanne) of Significant Productions will produce.
Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly’s Hello, Universe is a funny and poignant neighborhood story about unexpected friendships. Told from four intertwining points of view — two boys and two girls — the novel celebrates bravery, being different, and finding your inner bayani (hero). It follows a timid boy who lands in the bottom of a well due to a bully’s antics. His self-proclaimed psychic friend and unknowing crush then team up to find him.
Hello, Universe joins Netflix’s growing slate of live action movies featuring kids and teens and made for families, which includes the upcoming comedy Tall Girl, directed by Nzingha Stewart (Grey’s Anatomy, A Million Little Things), written by Sam Wolfson (Andi Mack, Finding Carter), and produced by Wonderland’s McG, Mary Viola, and Corey Marsh. Also on the movie slate is A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting, directed by Rachel Talalay (Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Riverdale) and based on author Joe Ballarini’s novel of the same name.