Film rights to Rebecca Serle’s novel “One Italian Summer” have sold to Paramount Pictures.
The Brian Robbins-led studio won a competitive auction for the bestseller, published by Simon & Schuster’s Atria label. Temple Hill will produce a feature adaptation and Serle is executive producing with David Stone of TFC Productions.
“One Italian Summer” follows Katy, a young woman reeling from the recent loss of her mom and best friend Carol. Katy embarks on the trip of a lifetime, meant to be spent as mother and daughter, over two weeks in Positano. Buoyed by the stunning waters, beautiful cliff sides, delightful residents and delectable food, Katy feels herself coming back to life. Things take a supernatural turn when suddenly her mother appears in the flesh — healthy, sun-tanned and thirty years old. Over the course of the summer, Katy not only discovers Carol as a young woman, but more about herself than she expected.
The rights acquisition is one of several literary properties percolating at the studio, in addition to Gabrielle Zevin’s “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow,” Tomi Adeyemi’s “Children of Blood and Bone,” and the highly anticipated sequel to Reese Witherspoon’s “Election,” based on the novel “Tracy Flick Can’t Win” by Tom Perrotta.
Serle’s additional works include the bestseller “In Five Years,” currently in feature development at New Line from Working Title and adaptive screenwriter Aimee Lagos. Her young adult novel “When You Were Mine” was the basis for the Hulu film “Rosaline.” She is repped by WME, TFC Management and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner & Klein.