Playwright Lindsey Ferrentino is adapting her stage show “Amy and the Orphans” into a feature film at Netflix.
Ferrentino will write and direct the movie, marking her feature directorial debut. Aggregate Films is producing “Amy and the Orphans.”
The story follows estranged siblings Maggie and Jake, who are adults by the time their elderly father dies, but still wish a “grown up” could sort it out. Their biggest worry is determining how to break the bad news to their sister Amy, a person with Down syndrome who has lived in a state home for years. Over a Thanksgiving weekend, in which they travel to Long Island, the three siblings find out just how much they don’t know about their family — and each other.
The stage show premiered at the Roundabout Theater Company in New York. Jamie Brewer, who portrayed Amy in the Off-Broadway production, became the first actor with Down syndrome to win a Drama Desk Award.
Ferrentino previously adapted the screenplay for “Not Fade Away,” an upcoming film based on the memoir by Rebecca Alexandra. Emily Blunt is attached to star in the movie about a woman born with a rare genetic mutation, which caused her to lose her sight and hearing over time and beat the odds of her prognosis. David O. Russell and John Krasinski are producing “Not Fade Away” with Annapurna Pictures.
Ferrentino is represented by CAA, Marnie Podos at Under New Mgmt in the UK, and Felker Toczek Suddleson Abramson. Aggregate is represented by CAA and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller & Gelman.
