The Selection book cover & Haifaa Al-Mansour – Picture: Getty Images
One of the big movies to look out for from Netflix in the future is The Selection, the adaptation of the romantic novel book from Kiera Cass. Below, we’ll be keeping track of everything we know about The Selection thus far including production status, who’s involved, and more.
For fans of the book, it’s been over a tough decade watching the failed attempts of the book being adapted. The CW has had two attempts with both pilots in 2012 and 2013 failing to get picked up for full TV series orders. The rights then moved to Warner Brothers in 2015 before now being with Netflix.
The news that The Selection would be heading to Netflix was originally broken by Variety in April 2020. Kiera Cass also posted some personal thoughts on the adaptation via her blog in April 2020 alongside the announcement. She didn’t have much to reveal other than “things look good!”. Kiera also pre-emptively answered a lot of questions fans already had by saying: “Do I know anything about casting? No! Do I have any idea when the release date is? Also no!” but added, “Am I stupid excited? YES!”.
The movie will follow the events of the book which pits 35 girls against each other for a chance to live amongst the wealthy.
Who’s involved with The Selection on Netflix?
The key talent involved in the project includes the director, Haifaa Al-Mansour, a Saudi-Arabian director (also the first from the region) who is most known for Wadjda but also had a hand in two Netflix projects including Nappily Ever After and directing on The Society (sadly canceled).
Love to all the SELECTION fans!! 😍
Haifaa Al-Mansour Set to Adapt Popular YA Novel ‘The Selection’ for Netflix https://t.co/C2h2LvV5XE via @indiewire pic.twitter.com/zyfipK05HP— Haifaa Al Mansour (@HaifaaMansour) August 5, 2020
Katie Lovejoy serves as the writer behind the movie who is probably best known for her writing on another Netflix romantic movie, To All The Boys 2.
Among the producers for the movie include Denise Di Novi, Alison Greenspan, and Pouya Shahbazian.
A sound technician has also been attached to the project too which is David Andrew MacMillan.
Who will be in the cast for The Selection on Netflix?
That’s yet to be determined, unfortunately.
We should at this point mention a huge ongoing campaign from fans to try and learn more about the movie, specifically the cast.
A social account with a large following (close to 80k followers) has mounted a campaign to find out who will be in the cast and it eventually warranted a response from Netflix HQ.
Hi! Love the enthusiasm and as soon as i’m able to share more details, you’ll be the first to know xoxo
— Netflix (@netflix) October 10, 2020
We spoke to Lucas from The Selection Brazil team who explained why the movie is so important to their campaign saying the book is “funny” and “romantic”. He also goes onto explain that his wish for the movie itself is that it focuses a little more on the rebellion that occurs saying “But it also has a deep side. Issues on the government, rebel attacks, things like that.”
When is production due to start for The Selection?
An issue of ProductionWeekly revealed that the movie is currently eying to begin production in early 2021 however that never came to pass and in fact, as of December 2021, the movie is still in relatively early development.
https://twitter.com/ASelecaoBR/status/1315414873145311236
In November 2020, a small update from Keira Cass said that she had no news on the movie front adding “Things have slowed for the time being, but as soon as there are updates, I will pass them along!”.
Now, a year later after that update, Kiera posted on Twitter that things looked to be moving forward saying that the “ball is in Netflix’s court.”
Ok, friends. #TheSelectionMovie update. Just got off a very positive phone call. The ball is in Netflix's court.
You know what to do.
— Kiera Cass (@kieracass) December 13, 2021
Pouya Shahbazian then clarified what exactly this Tweet means saying that “we have a script” and “now we just need a green light to make the movie – but that is out of our hands. all we can do is push…as can you!”
As someone tracking Netflix content for nearly 9 years, the above is just incredible particularly when they ask you to push the movie. The movie looks like it was announced way too soon in advance and given we don’t even know if it’ll move forward the idea that it’ll release in 2022 seems doubtful.
Since the above developments, fan accounts for the book have begun coming up with ways to get the word out and encourage Netflix to greenlight the movie.
https://twitter.com/TheSelectionNET/status/1471122165990895617
Why there could be multiple sequels to The Selection
Of course, once the first movie arrives and if it’s successful, it could be a long-running movie franchise for Netflix. The collection of books are known as “Happily Ever After”.
The books that could also see adaptations further down the line include:
- The Elite
- The One
- The Heir
- The Crown
Unfortunetely, that’s all we know so far about The Selection so far. More details will likely come out in due course and we’ll keep this post updated as soon as we find them.
Are you looking forward to watching The Selection on Netflix? Let us know in the comments down below.
