Best-selling author Emily Henry’s book “People We Meet on Vacation” movie adaptation has recruited Brett Haley as its director and Yulin Kuang to adapt the screenplay, TheWrap has learned.
Haley was previously best known for writing and directing “Hearts Beat Loud,” starring Nick Offerman, Kiersey Clemons, Ted Danson, Sasha Lane, Blythe Danner, and Toni Collette. His other credits include “The Hero,” which premiered at Sundance in competition in 2017, “All The Bright Places” starring Elle Fanning, and “All Together Now,” which was also recently released on Netflix. Haley has also directed an episode for the Hulu limited series Looking For Alaska, based on the award-winning novel of the same name.
Deadline first reported the news.
Published in 2021 by Berkley Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, the novel debuted on the New York Times bestseller list, spending over a year on the paperback list. The story follows college best friends Alex and Poppy, to very different people who vow to take a yearly vacation somewhere every summer.
Henry, who most recently published “Book Lovers,” and who has a continuing book contract with Berkley Books for at least three more novels after her latest announced “Happy Place,” posted Deadline’s piece to her Instagram.
She also later announced the news in her substack newsletter “Emily’s Grocery List,” the edition titled “About Time I Told You Some News.”
“People We Meet on Vacation” is (very likely) going to be a movie!” Henry wrote in her newsletter. “I say ‘very likely’ because films are made up of a million moving parts, and there’s a saying among authors to not get your hopes up for an adaptation to pan out until you’re actually sitting at the premiere.”
She also announced Haley’s and Kuang’s boarding of the project.
“We have our script,” she wrote. “And I love it so much that when I finished reading and set it aside, I just started weeping. I felt seen in the exact way that Alex’s story made Poppy feel seen.”
Temple Hill’s Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey and Isaac Klausner will produce. Laura Quicksilver is overseeing for the company. Erin Siminoff and Sophie Kaplan are overseeing the project for the studio.
Haley is repped by WME, manager Jeff Silver at Grandview, and attorneys Scott Whitehead and Jeff Frankel. Kuang is represented by UTA, Kaplan/Perrone and attorney Phillip Klein. Henry is represented by Taylor Haggerty of Root Literary and UTA.