An Edge of Seventeen TV show is currently in development at YouTube. The television show will not be a complete remake of Kelly Fremon Craig’s movie, but will instead use the 2016 film as a type of spiritual and thematic inspiration.
The original film The Edge of Seventeen starred Hailee Steinfeld as high school student Nadine, whose life turns upside down when her best friend begins dating her brother. Craig’s film was one of the highlights of 2016 and drew critical acclaim, but it was mostly overlooked in favor of other movies of that year. To the disappointments of many, the film was completely snubbed at the Academy Awards. But now, it looks like it has an opportunity to breathe new life on the small screen.
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Deadline reports that YouTube has ordered a pilot episode for Edge of Seventeen. With YouTube’s upcoming adaptation, it appears as though Edge of Seventeen is getting another shot in the spotlight. The TV series won’t feature the same characters of the film, but it will channel the movie’s overall tone and energy, and it will also aim to subvert the high school genre tropes just as Craig’s film did. The TV series is said to center on a high school student and her best friend, who work together to deal with the classic issues of social life, relationships, and everything else associated with being a teenage girl.
Annabel Oakes, whose Netflix series Atypical just received a season 3 renewal, will be writing and directing the Edge of Seventeen pilot. Craig, who also wrote the 2016 film, will be involved in the TV show as an executive producer. Craig spoke with excitement on Oakes’ involvement on the YouTube series, explaining:
“Annabel is an extraordinary writer with a voice like nobody else’s. She’s created a new set of characters so full of truth, humor, and specificity, I’ve fallen completely in love with them. For all of the reasons she makes an exceptional writer, she will make an exceptional director. I couldn’t be more thrilled to support her talent and help her bring this to life.”
YouTube has been shaping up to become a major competitor in the streaming market recently, with its growing slate of original content. In addition to its YouTube Red service, the popular website announced its own cable-free television subscription service in 2017 called YouTube TV. Since then, YouTube has dedicated its efforts to ordering pilots to promising series like Edge of Seventeen to make subscriptions to its service more enticing. Though the series doesn’t begin filming until January 2019, all of the impressive creative minds behind YouTube’s television spinoff of Edge of Seventeen suggests that the series could certainly make the site an even more formidable competitor on the streaming market, against powerhouses like Netflix and Amazon Prime.
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Source: Deadline