Okay, so I know it’s been a while since I posted something in this series, but in my defense, I spent the better part of three or four months trying to get a hold of this book. There’s also little to no information about the movie, so I was hoping there would be something else revealed in my little hiatus from the adaptation world. However, there’s no point in putting it off any longer. Without further ado, September’s ‘Page-to-Screen’ novel is Juleah del Rosario’s 500 Words or Less.
500 Words or Less follows the story of Nic Chen, a Chinese-American high schooler who is trying to change the way she is seen by her classmates in high school by writing their college admissions essays for them. The novel is written entirely in verse, which should be interesting to adapt since the settings aren’t really described and it’s more of just Nic’s internal monologue with a little bit of dialogue. Because of this, I’m very interested to see how this is handled in the film.
The rights were purchased by Gabrielle Union of Bring It On fame alongside Rebel Maverick and Amyale, but Manaal Khan and Matt Nicholas are producing on behalf of the latter two people. Development will be handled by Holly Shakoor Fleischer working under Union’s production banner, I’ll Have Another Productions.
And that’s all we really know! There’s no cast or really any production team other than those mentioned above attached to this project, and I’m not fully convinced it’s still happening, as all of this happened in 2018. However, I don’t give up hope easily (especially not after how long I’ve waited for Chaos Walking), and I refuse to believe that this movie isn’t being made until someone comes out and says it.