Tensions Brew Behind the Scenes of Greta Gerwig’s Pricy 'Narnia' Movie at Netflix, Where VP Doug Belgrad Is Out

Happy Wednesday, folks, though my heart goes out to those affected by this morning’s Netflix layoffs, which are the worst. I’ve been there, so I know.

My heart also goes out to the family of RJ Mitte, best known for playing Walt Jr. on Breaking Bad. Mitte was a disability advocate with a heart of gold, and I’m very sorry that he took his own life at 34. I can’t imagine the pain he was in.

Writing about premature deaths and mass layoffs is the hardest part of this job, but I take this gig seriously, and it’s not always fun and games. Check on your loved ones, folks. They’re all we have…

A little news up top — I’m told that Paul Greengrass has bowed out of 20th Century Studios’ action thriller Test Drive.

The studio landed Matt Venne’s spec in fall 2024 and began negotiating with Greengrass this past spring. At one point, it was shaping up to be his next movie, but after Greengrass made an unsuccessful play for A-list stars such as Timothee Chalamet and Michael B. Jordan, the project lost momentum. When it began to look as though production wouldn’t start in early 2027, as Greengrass had originally planned, he decided to move on.

Greengrass is coming off The Lost Bus, which I thought was excellent, and The Uprising, which I still haven’t seen. Quite frankly, the subject matter never interested me, and the mixed-negative reviews were a turnoff. I’m a big fan of several Greengrass films, such as Blood Sunday, United 93, and Captain Phillips, but I’d love to see him take a break from true stories and direct some pure escapist fare, like WB’s Drowning, based on the harrowing novel by former flight attendant T.J. Newman.

Speaking of books I love that are en route to the big screen, since the day I arrived in Los Angeles, I’ve been advocating for Hollywood to turn one book into a movie, and now, it’s finally happening, as R.L. Stine’s The Babysitter is coming to Tubi in 2027.

OK, so it’s Tubi. Who cares? At least someone at Tubi had the good sense to make this movie! It’s about a babysitter who is stalked by a serial killer. Had this movie been made in the ‘90s, as it should’ve been, it would’ve starred Alicia Silverstone, who did star in a movie called The Babysitter, but it sucked and had nothing to do with Stine’s genuinely creepy YA book.

The Babysitter could’ve been a legit franchise for Netflix (which technically already had a franchise by that name), but no one wants to listen. At least Dan Lin picked up another childhood favorite of mine this week — Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet, which Derek Cianfrance will direct for Andrew Mittman’s 1.21 banner.

Cianfrance (The Place Beyond the Pines) is one of my favorite filmmakers, and he’s the perfect fit for Hatchet. His work has a lyrical quality and real soul to it, and Hatchet has withstood the test of time precisely because it has soul, too. If Cianfrance delivers, this could also be a (modest) franchise for Netflix, as there are five books in Paulsen’s series.

If I were an executive, as I should’ve been, The Babysitter and Hatchet are two of the first books I would’ve chased down the rights to. I don’t have high-brow taste in fiction, like Scott Rudin, but I know how to recognize stories that would make good movies and TV shows.

For example, I realize that I grew up watching Alex Cross and Lincoln Rhyme movies in the ‘90s, so I didn’t “discover” those characters — Hollywood introduced them to me. However, since then, few have beaten the drum for those characters harder than yours truly. Granted, NBC’s recent Lincoln Rhyme series didn’t work out, but Cross is one of Prime Video’s biggest hits. It could’ve been another streamer’s hit had anyone bothered to listen at any point in the last 20 years, but I digress.

I also spent 20 years banging the drum for Lizzie Borden’s story to be told properly, having written a script about her in college, and sure enough, Season 4 of Monster is one of Netflix’s biggest hits of the year. Go figure!

My taste isn’t always for the masses. I also adapted Eric Bogosian’s Mall in college, and years later, that book was turned into an indie movie starring Vincent D’Onofrio and Cameron Monaghan, though it’s all but forgotten these days. Fair enough.

The point is, that book was ripe for an adaptation, and it eventually got made with a cast of recognizable stars.

Producers should also take a look at Carol Saline’s true-crime story Dr. Snow, about a Philadelphia dentist-turned-cocaine kingpin, and Giorgio Faletti’s serial killer thriller I Kill, which has been in the works since 2003, when Aurelio De Laurentiis paid $700,000 for the rights to the crackling Italian bestseller, which is begging to be adapted as a film or series. Someone should offer De Laurentiis $1 million for the rights right now and bet their job on that one.

Which leads me to my next point.

Back in 2006, I named Tell No One, a French adaptation of a Harlan Coben novel, my favorite film of the year. Hardly anyone had heard of Coben back then, but these days, his books are practically a genre unto themselves on Netflix, where his latest series, I Will Find You, ranks among the streamer’s top-performing shows of all time.

Tell No One should, obviously, be turned into an English-language series by Netflix, which has a strong relationship with Coben. But if you’re Netflix, or a streamer looking to duplicate the success that Netflix has had with Coben’s books, you might ask yourself, who is the next Coben?

By the way, you can’t say Colleen Hoover or Freida McFadden, whose books are now welcome on the big screen. But if Hollywood is slobbering all over those two authors, then let me tell you who I’d lock into a deal if I were an exec — Shari Lapena.

I’ve now read six of Lapena’s twisty thrillers, and it’s clear that she likes putting ordinary characters under extraordinary pressure, whether they’re desperately searching for a missing loved one or pulling off the perfect murder.

That’s the premise of her latest book, Getting Away With Murder, which follows a married couple who are struggling to keep up with the Joneses and decide to push the man’s wealthy brother off a boat. The book follows the couple as they unravel under suspicion and make compromises to prevent the truth from ever coming out. It may not be the most original novel, but it’s a juicy page-turner and easy to imagine as a TV show.

As an exec, I’d feel comfortable betting on Lapena at this point. I wouldn’t be the first, technically.

Back in 2018, Paramount Television, Anonymous Content, and Sugar23 optioned the rights to Lapena’s breakout novel, The Couple Next Door. The producers commissioned a script from writer Lila Feinberg (Younger), but nothing ever came of the project.

Well, let me tell you that The Couple Next Door is exactly what streamers should be making. Not only was it a New York Times bestseller that sold 4 million copies worldwide, but it made a fan of McFadden, who is blurbed on the covers of Lapena’s follow-up novels An Unwanted Guest and Everyone Here Is Lying, to name but two.

So, why isn’t Hollywood paying closer attention to Lapena’s considerable bibliography?

The problem with many executives in Hollywood is that they lack curiosity and don’t really read unless they’re told to read something, or told that someone else is reading something. They rely on book scouts — who do the Lord’s work, by the way — and agents and managers telling them what to read instead of trusting their own tastes and following that taste wherever it may lead.

Execs are also focused on reading what’s hot and new rather than old relics. But this business is all about timing, and just because a book or script wasn’t right for the market when it was written or published doesn’t mean it isn’t right for the current marketplace. I wish studios — and streamers, too, I guess — would look at the mountain of scripts and books they’ve already bought rather than leave them to rot in the dustbin of history.

There’s plenty of gold to mine in studio vaults. They just need someone to sift through the pan and pick out the nuggets. I’m available… for the right price.

Until then, you can keep reading for what I’m hearing about Greta Gerwig’s Narnia movie and the tension it’s causing behind the scenes at Netflix…

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