Hello, my friends,
Once more here with some great news, but before I get to that, I also have some bummer news. I told you in my last letter that I was going to be doing a live event with my lovely and talented friend Calahan Skogman to celebrate his new book release in Chicago, and I’m so, so sorry and disappointed to tell you that some real life stuff has come up that has made it impossible for me to be there in person. I’m still going to be hosting virtually and more importantly, Calahan will still be there in person to meet all of you, so I really, really hope you can still make it. This book is really beautiful, and book tours can already incredibly be nerve-wracking for authors (especially for their debut novels), so I really hope you can still make it. I’m trying to figure out if I can get some signed book plates up there for everyone who comes, and again, Calahan could not be a much lovelier person so it will still be a magical event even with me Zooming in from elsewhere with my ancient dog snoring on my feet. Again, I can’t express how sad and sorry I am to miss out on this chance to meet all of you, and also, to meet Calahan irl for the first time, so if you do go, please feel free to tag me in your FOMO shots with him.
So now that the huge bummer is out of the way, we can move onto fun stuff.
After multiple years’ worth of drafts, so many false starts and stops, and a lot of searching, the PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION movie is finally happening.
I can now fully admit there were (many) times I didn’t think we’d get here, and then, over the last few months things came together in a truly serendipitous cosmic way.
We have our (mostly) final script and it’s hilarious.
We have our locations scouted and chosen. (More on that below.)
And most importantly, we have our Poppy and Alex.
Again, in the interest of honesty, I’ll tell you that this casting process has had me in knots. There are so many moving parts and so many ways for something to fall apart. But if there was only one way forward, I actually think we’ve found it.
From the very beginning, we’ve known that this movie would sink or swim based on chemistry. So there weren’t just auditions and meetings. There was also a chemistry read. For those who don’t know, that’s exactly what it sounds like: You take two actors you’re excited about and have them do a few different scenes together to see what happens.
In this case, the chemistry reads had to happen over Zoom because Brett’s already in Europe getting everything ready to shoot, while our potential Poppy and Alex were both busy shooting elsewhere.
Obviously, this is a tall order. Having chemistry in real life is one thing, having chemistry on screen is another, but having chemistry on Zoom is… dare I say… a miracle?
And that’s what this was. When I watched these two people meet, fall in love, and fall apart, I was covered in chills. I laughed aloud within two minutes of seeing them onscreen together. I cried by the end. I had no idea what to expect from these two actors, and I fell completely in love with them.
Actually since watching their chemistry read AND meeting them, my and Brett’s text thread is basically just the word “irresistible” over and over again. It’s the only word I can use to describe each of their respective performances and more importantly, the magic of them together.
I wish I could just show you now but the good news is, we are MOVING so you will get to fall in love with them very soon. I hope you are even a fraction as excited as I am right now for this film. I know how terrifying it is to loosen our grips on this story enough to let new people into the mix. My top priority for every ounce of involvement I’m granted in every of one of these adaptations is honoring you. I feel so grateful to be able to honestly tell you that I think this script and this cast does that.
Nothing has shaken out quite how I imagined or expected, but somehow it’s all worked out perfectly in the end. I hope you fall in love with these people like I have. I really think that you will.
That feels like the perfect way to end this letter but there actually are a couple more ~behind the scenes~ things I wanted to fill you on. First off, the settings: Early on, Brett and I agreed that we’d both prefer to use real locations rather than trying to pass off alternate locations as the settings from the book (I.e. when you’re watching something set in NYC and it is very blatantly Vancouver). So we started the conversation very early on about which settings from the book were viable from a practical standpoint (for a lot of boring reasons I won’t get into) and we actually managed to keep two of my absolute favorite vacations, while we’ve shifted a couple as well for production reasons! The big one I wanted to personally tell you about so it doesn’t come as a surprise: Palm Springs. Turns out Palm Springs is actually a very difficult place to film! Who knew! But we knew we wanted a place that could feel BIG and BEAUTIFUL and romantic and also hellishly hot if your AC were to break, for example. So all that to say, get ready for a very sexy, sultry summer in Barcelona. If all goes well, I’ll be making it out to set to see some of the shoot there and I promise to share anything They let me with you about that process.
So that’s all the good news I’ve got for today! Oh, and I turned in a draft of the Funny Story script yesterday, so things are moving there, and I’m very excited to share more with you about that soon.
Thank you for being the best readers I could ever asked for or even dreamed of. I’m so excited to go on this journey with you.
xo,
E