Netflix is putting the finishing touches on a deal to acquire the Paolo Bacigalupi short story MIKA MODEL. Hit List and Young & Hungry alum David Weil is in final talks to adapt the script, which will be produced by Shawn Levy and his 21 Laps Entertainment, with Dan Cohen.
Described as an intelligent dystopic sci-fi story in the vein of Ex Machina, Mika Model is the story of a young woman – or robot – who walks into a police station and confesses to a murder, creating an unprecedented dilemma for the cop who must decide how to resolve the case. The story was first published by Slate in April.
2014 Young & Hungry List alum Weil makes for the perfect scribe to adapt the story, given the similar elements to his 2014 Hit List script Moonfall, which follows an FBI agent who travels to a moon colony to investigate its very first death. That script was sold to Audax, while Weil’s untitled Arabian Nights project is currently in development with Warner Bros. and 3 Arts Entertainment. Weil also made the 2013 Black List with his spec Half Heard in the Stillness.
Levy and 21 Laps continue to expand their hefty development slate, which includes another collaboration with Netflix, the Winona Ryder-led series Stranger Things. Their active development projects include And Then There Were None with director Morten Tyldum and Substitute Teacher with Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele.
Bacigalupi is a popular sci-fi author who has won the Hugo, Nebula, Compton Crook, Theodore Sturgeon, and Michael L. Printz awards, and was nominated for the 2010 National Book Award for his novel Ship Breaker.
Weil is repped by CAA.
Bacigalupi is repped by CAA and Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency.
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Josh Lyons | Managing Editor
This news was first reported by Deadline.
