Overbrook options Adlington's YA Nazi drama

Overbrook Entertainment has optioned Lucy Adlington's YA novel, The Red Ribbon, about a 14-year-old Jewish girl working as a seamstress at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. 

Film rights have been acquired by West Hollywood-based Overbrook Entertainment from Emily Hayward-Whitlock at The Artists Partnership, on behalf of Kate Shaw at The Shaw Agency.

Overbrook founder James Lassiter and president Caleeb Pinkett are attached to produce the film based on The Red Ribbon which follows a 14-year-old Ella as she joins the dressmakers of Auschwitz. These young women and teenage girls made haute couture clothes for their Nazi captors and in so doing were saved from the gas chambers.

Pinkett said: “I believe The Red Ribbon to be a very powerful and moving story, which can be adapted into an award-winning film that will be heartfelt and captivating to all audiences.”

Founded in 1998 by Will Smith and Lassiter, Overbrook has developed and produced films including "I-Robot", "The Secret Life of Bees" and "Annie". 

Shaw said: “James Lassiter and Caleeb Pinkett at Overbrook’s vision for The Red Ribbon is so exciting; they are the perfect home for this extraordinary story of hope and survival.”

York-based author and historian Adlington added: “It's incredibly moving to know that this story of female friendship and loyalty is reaching a wider audience, and such a tribute to the real dressmakers of Auschwitz who used their sewing skills to survive in the face of terrible persecution.”

Tattooist of Auschwitz (Zaffre) author Heather Morris said The Red Ribbon "captivates, inspires and ultimately enriches". 

Adlington’s novels have been longlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal and shortlisted for book awards including the Manchester Book Prize and the Leeds Book Prize. The Red Ribbon was first published by Hot Key Books in the UK in July 2017, in the US it is published by Candlewick Press, and French, Dutch, Russian, Greek and Portuguese rights have also been sold.