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Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels are coming to TV.
Varietyreports that the Italian production company Wildside is developing an adaptation of the pseuodnymous author’s popular quartet of novels, which follow the friendship of two young women, Elena and Lila, as they come of age in Naples. Wildside will be working with Fandango (no relation to the ticket website), which produced the well-regarded adaptation of the Neapolitan crime drama Gommora. The producers are looking for other international partners, which means that the series could air in several countries after it’s completed.
According to early reports, the series will consist of four seasons of eight episodes each. There are a number of questions, though. How the series will deal without Elena’s narration, and how it will deal with casting, considering that the novels span decades, are perhaps the biggest. The Neapolitan novels will be hard to get right, but Ferrante is supposedly going to be involved, which is a good sign. Though how she would actually do that—considering, you know, that no one knows who she is—is the biggest question of all.