Picturestart, Plan B Team For Film Adaptation Of Rainbow Rowell Bestseller ‘Eleanor & Park’

EXCLUSIVE: Picturestart has acquired film rights to Rainbow Rowell’s bestselling novel Eleanor & Park. Plan B will produce with Picturestart’s Erik Feig, whose upstart production company has committed to finance the film. The author is writing the script and will be exec producer.

The novel is the bittersweet story of two misfit teenagers living in Nebraska in 1986. It poignantly captures the awkward, sometimes painful, minefield of the high school experience — and the wonder of first love. Protagonists Eleanor and Park connect on the school bus, through comic books and mix tapes, and fall headfirst for each other, even though they know it will bring them trouble. The book won multiple awards, including a Printz Honor and the Goodreads Choice Award, and was named one of year’s best by the New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus Reviews among others. Eleanor & Park has sold more than 1 million copies to date, and is published in 41 languages.

“This book is very close to my heart, and I’ve always felt very cautious about adapting it,” Rowell said. “But everyone at Picturestart and Plan B has so much respect for the story and the characters. I really feel like I couldn’t have found a better group of people to trust with Park and Eleanor — and I can’t wait to see this project come to life.”

Rowell is also the author of bestsellers Fangirl, Landline, and Carry On. She has two books coming out this year — Wayward Son, Book 2 in in the Simon Snow series, and the graphic novel, Pumpkinheads. She is currently writing Marvel’s Eisner-nominated Runaways comic.

Lucy Kitada is executive producing and overseeing for Picturestart. The author is repped by Anonymous Content.