A new young-adult book is headed to theaters. The Tracking Board reported Thursday that Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner will adapt Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart for the big screen. Dunham and Konner are the creative force behind the HBO hit series Girls, and they will be working with Lionsgate to bring Lockhart's 2017 novel to a theater near you.
Genuine Fraud just hit store shelves on Sep. 5, but Lionsgate worked quickly to secure the film rights to Lockhart's novel. A film adaptation of the author's previous bestseller, We Were Liars, is currently in production from Imperative Entertainment. Imperative has also acquired the rights to several other recent bestsellers, including Christine Mangan's Tangerine, David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon, and N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season, all of which I would love to see on screen.
Told in reverse, the story of Genuine Fraud centers on Imogen and Jule, two seemingly similar young women who could not be more different. Imogen is an heiress living the high life with her group of friends on Martha's Vineyard. Jule, an orphan capable of protecting and disguising herself, finds herself pulled into the other woman's circle, and is soon caught up in a whirlwind friendship that could come at a devastating cost for them both. Lockhart drew from Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, if that tells you anything about where this story could be headed.
Genuine Fraud is the latest in a spate of dark YA novels to make moves toward the screen, the most notable being the Netflix adaptation of Jay Asher's 13 Reasons Why.
The E. Lockhart novel isn't the only adaptation on Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner's production plate. The Girls creators are currently in the process of bringing the German comedy film Toni Erdmann to audiences in the U.S. That remake will star Jack Nicholson and Kristen Wiig, according to The Tracking Board, with Dunham and Konner responsible for writing the screenplay.
In 2015, Dunham and Konner launched A Casual Romance Productions with Girls producer Ericka Naegle. At the time of this writing, the company has two completed documentaries listed on its IMDB page: 2016's Suited and 2015's It's Me, Hilary: The Man Who Drew Eloise. Dunham has a famous Eloise tattoo, so it's probably safe to say that much of A Casual Romance Productions' body of work is made up of passion projects, including the upcoming Genuine Fraud adaptation.
Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart, $13, Amazon
