“Despite Sally Rooney having two of her novels adapted into television series, fans can’t expect her third novel to hit the screen anytime soon. In a conversation with the New York Times, the Normal People author revealed that she is not accepting any offers to adapt her 2021 third book, Beautiful World, Where Are You”, — write: www.hollywoodreporter.com
In a conversation with the New York Times, the Normal People author revealed that she is not accepting any offers to adapt her 2021 third book, Beautiful World, Where Are You following the success of adaptations Normal People and Conversations With Friends, both of which aired on BBC Three/Hulu.
“So far I have decided not to accept any offers to option the rights for that book,” Rooney told the publication. “I felt like it was just time to take a break from that and let the book be its own thing for a while.”
Rooney, who has been described as a generational literary voice previously dubbed the “first great millennial novelist” or “Salinger for the Snapchat generation,” received critical acclaim for her 2018 novel, Normal People. The series, which starred Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones, became a success following its April 2020 release, making Mescal and Edgar-Jones immediate breakout stars.
Alice Birch was series screenwriter while Lenny Abrahamson directed the first half of the 12-episode limited series followed by Hettie Macdonald.
Despite helping adapt her novel to screen — her very first time writing a screenplay — Rooney was not involved in the adaptation process of her 2017 novel Conversations With Friends, which starred Alison Oliver, Joe Alwyn, Jemima Kirke and Sasha Lane, because she was working on writing Beautiful World, Where Are You.
When asked if she wishes she had been more involved in adapting that novel given it seemingly wasn’t as successful as Normal People, Rooney confirmed that she didn’t.
“The reason that I chose not to be so involved in the second adaptation was because I was working on what became my third novel [Beautiful World, Where Are You],” Rooney said before reflecting on the big undertaking working on the series was and the public attention that followed.
“The experience of working on the first one had been, in so many ways, amazing — the team of people involved in it. But it did also feel like a really big job. Then, when the show was broadcast, that felt like a lot in terms of the amount of discourse that it generated and the amount of media attention. I felt that world was not where I belonged. I felt like, OK, now I know that my books are where I belong, and that’s all that I want to be doing.”
Rooney is set to release her long anticipated fourth novel, Intermezzo, which centers on two brothers grieving the loss of their father while exploring romantic relationships, on Tuesday.