Sarah Epstein’s award winning young adult thriller Small Spaces has been optioned for film by the award winning and highly regarded producers, Triptych Pictures and US producer, Rebecca Green. In a deal brokered by agent Alex Adsett, Small Spaces is in development as a tense and exciting feature for the domestic and international market.
“We don’t pick and choose what to be afraid of. Our fears pick us.”
Tash Carmody has been traumatised since childhood when she witnessed her gruesome imaginary friend Sparrow lure young Mallory Fisher away from a carnival. Now seventeen, Tash starts to see Sparrow again as disturbing memories resurface, and Mallory is the key to a dark secret connecting them.
Small Spaces is a beautifully crafted psychological thriller for ages 14 years and up. It is tense, gripping, and messes with your head in the best possible way.
Triptych, best known for international blockbuster The Babadook and TV mini-series, Wake In Fright, and Rebecca Green, the producer of It Follows, have combined forces with writer/director, Shelly Lauman on this adaptation. Shelly Lauman’s latest short, Birdie, screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and was acquired by Fox Searchlight. Producers Kristian Moliere and Rebecca Green say:
“We were all captivated from the moment we read Sarah Epstein’s novel. Not only is it a compelling psychological thriller, it is grounded by relatable, authentic teen characters with an underlying social commentary about our unwillingness to believe the experience of women.”
Author Sarah Epstein says, “I’m beyond excited about a Small Spaces film adaptation, and so grateful to Kristian, Rebecca and Shelly for embracing this story and for their vision in bringing it to a wider audience.”
Agent Alex Adsett says, “I am thrilled with this deal, and so happy this incredible story is in the talented hands of Shelly, Kristian and Rebecca. Sarah’s incredible tense book will be realised beautifully for the screen, and I can’t wait to see it!”
In other news, Allen & Unwin has sold rights in Epstein’s new release Deep Water, a suspenseful YA crime novel, to Fischer Sauerlander in Germany and Editions Bayard in France, with more deals on the way.
Deep Water is a gripping mystery about a missing boy and a group of teenagers who know more than they’re telling about the night he disappeared. It was recently shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards for Young Adult readers.
Small Spaces is published by Walker Books, 2018.
Deep Water is published by Allen & Unwin, 2020.