When readers and audiences hear Hello Sunshine has acquired a best-selling book, its likely the production companys president of film and TV, Lauren Neustadter, has spearheaded the deal.
Before joining Reese Witherspoons production company in 2017, Neustadter spent over a decade working in film as an executive at such companies as Miramax and 20th Century Fox, eventually transitioning to TV and serving as a Fox network exec. Once she landed at Hello Sunshine and before she developed a slew of book-inspired series, including Big Little Lies, Little Fires Everywhere and Truth Be Told she had an early book-to-screen adaptation, Americanized, that made it to the final stages of thenetwork development pilot cycle.
Iranian immigrant Sara Saedis memoir of the same name aligned with Hello Sunshines mission to depict a series centered around womens unique experiences. In October 2018, it was announced that Hello Sunshine was going to adapt Americanized as a half-hour comedy with ABC Studios. What motivated
Neustadter to acquire Americanized was its ability to provoke social commentary, while also serving as a show that parents and kids could watch together. Americanized allowed Hello Sunshine which carefully curates women-centric projects to fill that space.
Saedis memoir-turned-pilot resembled The Wonder Years, but was set during the authors childhood during the 1990s.
It really centered around an Iranian teenage girl who was in America, living near Silicon Valley. This character, Leila, clearly inspired by Sara, did not know that her family was in the country illegally. In the course of the pilot, hijinks ensue, and she realizes that theyre undocumented, says Neustadter. I
just thought it was such a wonderful, beautiful show that balanced something that felt really substantial, with a tone that felt really accessible and entertaining.
Since the story was the authors lived experience, it was filled with emotion and humor, Neustadter explains.
I think there was a real buoyancy and humanity about it. She found the laughs, [even though] she didnt know that they were undocumented, she says. I thought that the themes of it, like it doesnt matter where youre from, what matters is who you are, who you love and wherever your family is, thats home. The truth is, Sara loved being American and it was a journey toward becoming a citizen. But it was really sort of the truth of that moment.
Developing Saedis very personal story was no simple feat, but Neustadter says, Everything really starts with the relationship with the author. We always talk about honoring the book, and that the first and most important thing is we honor the book, she says. Its always sensitive when youre working with someone whos adapting something that they wrote, and even more so when its somebody adapting something that they wrote thats so personal.
Neustadter respects an authors work and recognizes the intimate connection between a writer and reader traits that have allowed her to develop a steady flow of book-to-screen adaptations within the past year, recently releasing four adapted series: Daisy Jones and the Six, The Last Thing He Told Me, Tiny Beautiful Things and From Scratch.
The Hello Sunshine exec is hopeful that the Americanized pilot will one day join her long list of produced adaptations. I hope that someday itll come back around never say never, she says. The great thing about these stories is that once theyre written down theres always a possibility of them being told.