Streaming giant Netflix announced today it will produce a live action family movie, Hello, Universe, based on the 2018 Newbery Award winning, New York Times bestselling novel of the same name by Erin Entrada Kelly.
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.
The bestseller is about four intertwining middle-school friendships. There’s Virgil who feels out of place in his crazy-about-sports family. Valencia is deaf, smart, and loves everything about nature. Kaori is a self-proclaimed psychic, whose little sister, Gen, is always following her around. And Chet wishes the weird kids would just stop being so different so that he can concentrate on basketball.
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They aren’t friends at first. But when Chet pulls a prank that traps Virgil and his pet guinea pig at the bottom of a well, Kaori, Gen, and Valencia begin a quest to find the missing Virgil.
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.
Source: Netflix
