Hollywood In Bidding War For Veronica Chamber’s YA Novel ‘The Go-Between’Posted by Wilson Morales
June 2, 2017
Blackfilm.com has learned that best-selling author Veronica Chamber‘s latest book, the YA novel The Go-Between, may be optioned for TV or Film. The story is a high school dramedy that questions Mexican American immigrant stereotypes amidst a telenovela and Beverly Hills background. Sources tell the site that there’s a bidding war among Hollywood producers, including John Singleton, to see who can land the rights.
Cammi is the envy of every teenage girl in Mexico City. Her mother is a glamorous telenovela actress. Her father is the go-to voice-over talent for blockbuster films. Hers is a world of private planes, chauffeurs, paparazzi, and gossip columnists. When Cammi’s mom gets cast in an American television show and the family moves to LA, things change, and quickly. Her mom’s first role is playing a not-so-glamorous maid in a sitcom. Her dad tries to find work but dreams about returning to Mexico. And at the posh, private Polestar Academy, Cammi’s new friends assume she’s a scholarship kid, the daughter of a domestic.
At first Cammi thinks playing along with the stereotypes will be her way of teaching her new friends a lesson. But the more she lies, the more she wonders: Is she only fooling herself?
Karla Souza (who plays Laurel on “How to Get Away with Murder”) has already read the novel for the audio version.
Chambers is an Afro-Latina writer who edited the 2017 collection of essays on Michelle Obama, The Meaning of Michelle: 16 Writers on the Iconic First Lady and How Her Journey Inspires Our Own, and has co-written several memoirs, including Marcus Samuelsson‘s Yes, Chef, Robin Roberts’ Everybody’s Got Something, and Michael Strahan’s Wake Up Happy. She also had written Mama’s Girl which has been course adopted by hundreds of high schools and colleges throughout the country.
YA Novels by African American and Hispanic writers are starting to be looked at and picked up for either the big screen or television. Currently in theaters is Everything, Everything, based on the book by Nicola Yoon and starring Amandla Stenberg and Nick Robinson and Anika Noni Rose and her production company Roaring Virgin Productions recently acquired the TV and film rights to Shadowshaper, Daniel José Older’s bestselling YA fantasy series.
