Italian director Saverio Costanzo is set to co-write and direct a TV series based on Italian author Elena Ferrante’s the Neapolitan Quartet. The 32-part series (!!) will focus on the pseudonymous author’s four novels, “My Brilliant Friend” “The Story of a New Name,” “Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay,” and “The Story of the Lost Child.”
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Set against Italian milieu, the coming-of-age series follows the lifelong friendship between two women as they struggle to overcome poverty and abuse to make a life of their own. Though the author’s identity remains shrouded in mystery, the series has gained a cult following, best-seller status, and has been translated into several languages.
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The project, which has been in the works for two years, already has a team of screenwriters. Costanzo will be writing the script alongside Italian writers Francesco Piccolo and Laura Paolucci with contributions from the author herself. Costanzo has plenty of TV experience, helming both seasons of the Italian version of “In Treatment.” Stateside audiences might know him best as the helmer of the thriller “Hungry Hearts” starring Adam Driver.
The TV adaptation will be in Italian with filming expected to begin in Naples later this year, with each season running eight, 50-minute episodes long (so four seasons, based on one book each). The series is tentatively set to debut in the fall of 2018. [The New York Times]