HBO Max has given a script-to-series order to an adaptation of the classic children’s novel “The Westing Game,” the streamer announced Wednesday.
No writer or director is attached to the project, but HBO Max, along with producers MGM Television and Julie Corman, is “currently interviewing” candidates.
First published in 1978, Ellen Raskin’s “The Westing Game” is described as an “ensemble mystery-comedy” surrounding the death of millionaire Samuel Westing. The reading of Westing’s will sets in motion a game for his sixteen heirs unlike any other, the winners of which will walk away with his $200 million fortune.
The novel won the John Newbury Award for children’s literature in 1979 and was ranked number one on the list of the top 100 children’s novels of all time by School Library Journal in 2012.
“The Westing Game” previously received the screen-adaptation treatment with a 1997 made-for-TV movie starring Ashley Peldon, Diane Ladd, Sally Kirkland and Ray Walston under the title “Get a Clue.” Corman, who owns the rights to Raskin’s novel, also served as a producer on the 1997 adaptation.