'13 Reasons Why' Director Will Adapt Alice Sebold's Sexual Assault Memoir into Movie
Editor's Note
If you’ve experienced sexual abuse or assault, the following post could be potentially triggering. You can contact The National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
Writer and director Karen Moncrieff, who directed two episodes of “13 Reasons Why,” will adapt Alice Sebold’s sexual assault memoir “Lucky” in a movie, according to Deadline. The film is currently in pre-production and casting. A release date has not been set.
“Lucky” chronicles Sebold’s journey after she was sexually assaulted as an 18-year-old college freshman. In the memoir, Sebold wrote about her experience after the assault, including coping with trauma, the reaction of her friends and family, and her efforts to have her rapist arrested and convicted.
“Lucky” was published in 1999 and has since sold over 1 million copies. This isn’t the first time Sebold’s writing has been turned into a movie. Her 2002 best-selling novel, “The Lovely Bones,” was released as a movie in 2009.
Moncrieff wrote the screenplay for “Lucky” and will direct the feature film. James Brown will serve as a producer. Brown is best known for his work on the movie “Still Alice,” the story of a professor with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. While a release date has not been set, producers hope the film will be ready by the fall.
“I’m excited to tell this unflinching, true story of a fierce rape survivor and her battle to become the person and writer she always intended to be,” said Moncrieff, according to Deadline. “Alice’s courage, wit and willingness to remake her shocking personal trauma into moving and redemptive art are incredibly inspiring to me.”
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Header image via Simon & Schuster
Renée Fabian was the features editor at The Mighty. She has also written for The Washington Post, VICE, Healthline, Talkspace, The Fix, The Establishment, The Culture Trip, and GRAMMY.com, among others. Renée was named a 2019 AHCJ Comparative Effectiveness Research fellow, a 2020 USC Center for Health Journalism California fellow, and holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Southern California and a master's degree in psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles. You can follow her on Twitter @ryfabian.
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