Meg's Diary

Mediator Movie News

For years many of you have asked “When is there going to be a movie (or TV series) about The Mediator?”

Well, I can finally answer: SOON.

The Mediator series has been in and out of option many times with many studios. One reason things never got very far is because of YOU, the fans. I knew it was vital that the script closely match the books or I’d be letting you down.

I’ve published a lot of books (I think close to 100 now!) but no fan base is as devoted to any of them as you are to The Mediator. The Princess Diaries may be my most well-known books, but passion-wise, The Mediator fans:

  • write me the most (and longest) letters/emails/DMs
  • come to signings dressed as the characters. It’s so easy to spot you Suze/Jesse fans in a crowd!
  • are just generally the most vocal about their love for the books

I love that!

So I knew from Day 1 that if The Mediator ever became a movie, it had better be super faithful to the books, or you’d be so disappointed!

 

Unfortunately, for years many of the studios/producers who wanted to get in on The Mediator action to didn’t seem to understand how important this was. You’d think after all the backlash from fans we’ve seen over so many books-to-films, they’d get it, but many of them didn’t.

After optioning the rights to one studio only to see that the production was going in a direction that would have caused all of you to simultaneously throw up and commit murder, I had to pull the option (yes, you can do this up until a certain point).

That was such an unsettling experience, I told my agent that The Mediator was off limits – I didn’t want to option it to anyone. I needed a break.

So for years The Mediator film rights sat with me, and I was very happy about that.

 

But then streaming came along. So many books were being made into great movies and TV shows, I thought it might be OK to go ahead and hear some pitches from producers who were interested in The Mediator . . . .

And that’s how I ended up on a call with an Australian writer/director named Sarah Spillane. She had not only read all the books, she wanted to keep the story as close as possible to how it was in the series.

Sarah had some great casting ideas for The Mediator that I loved (sorry, secret for now and of course everything will probably be different due to Covid. Please do not ask me about casting, that’s fortunately not my call).

Sarah is also a genuinely caring person who works with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America among other things. Even better, she eventually teamed up with Debra Martin Chase, the producer who worked with Whitney Houston to bring The Princess Diaries to the big screen.

I’ve already read Sarah’s first draft for Shadowland, and I LOVED it.

Best of all, Netflix, who Sarah shopped it to, loved it as well, and has snatched it up with the intention of making seven 1-1/2 hour movies, one for each of The Mediator books (fingers crossed this actually happens, but it is the plan for now. Remember, all of this can change!).*

*Edited to add: The plan is to keep the scripts as close to possible to the books, but as you know, some of these books were written 20 years ago, and times have changed. Sarah and I have spent hours talking (sometimes with Netflix) about how to keep the tone of the books the same while being sensitive to the fact that some things from the books need a little updating for today’s audiences, mainly some of the mysteries Suze encounters. Jesse and Suze themselves are fine.

Filming of the first book has been delayed due to Covid (the plan was to film it on location in Northern California so we could actually use a real mission as the setting for The Mission School that Suze attends. But alas, the stupid virus has ruined that).

So for now Sarah is working on location in Australia on another film. Here’s the Australian outlet that spilled the news!

So please, if you want to see The Mediator soon, WEAR YOUR MASK and socially distance, and encourage others to do so as well, so we can have a little something to look forward to: Jesse and Suze onscreen one day soon!

And thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for all your love and support. It means so much to me, especially as I’m sitting here struggling to make the deadline on my next book and needing something fun to look forward to as well!

More later.

Much love,

Meg

 

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