On the eve of the arrival of Netflix and Sony’s Emily Henry book-to-movie adaptation People We Meet on Vacation, the streamer welcomed the author’s adaptation of Funny Story, published in April 2024 to its slate of development.
Henry also boarded the adaptation of her novel Happy Place, published a year before Funny Story in April 2023. Deadline first reported in June 2024 that Happy Place was getting a TV series adaptation with Bridgerton co-EP Leila Cohan attached at Netflix produced by Jennifer Lopez’s Nuyorican. Now it will be a film. Henry will write the adaptation of Happy Place, and she is also writing the screenplay for the adaptation of Funny Story as Variety first reported.
Happy Place centers med school student Harriet and Wyn, a complementary couple unlike People We Meet on Vacation’s Alex and Poppy, who broke up five months before their traditional trip to a Maine Cottage that inspired the story’s title. They keep their breakup a secret from their friend group, who have been coming to the cottage once a year for a decade, though cracks start to show in their façade.
Funny Story follows an ex-swap of sorts between Miles and child librarian Daphne, whose fiancé Peter breaks up with her because he realizes he loves his childhood best friend Petra, Miles’ now ex-girlfriend. Stranded in their exes’ shared lakeside hometown, Miles and Daphne make a pact to get back with, or at, Peter and Petra.
Two of Henry’s other books, Beach Read and Book Lovers, are also being adapted into movies for 20th Century and Tango, respectively. Yulin Kuang, who co-wrote the adaptation of People We Meet on Vacation is set to direct the Beach Read feature film. Girls writer Sarah Heyward is attached to write the Book Lovers adaptation.
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Henry’s most recent novel, which came out in 2025, is Great Big Beautiful Life, which was a Reese’s Book Club pic for April last year. The book follows Alice Scott and Hayden Anderson, two writers competing to ink the biography of an elusive former celebrity heiress, Margaret Ives.
Variety first reported the above news.
