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IP Picks🔎: ‘The Lord of the Flies’ Goes ‘Friday Night Nights’ & a Deadly Beauty Pageant

➕ A backlist gem and a horror story about the horrors of racism

Andy Lewis

May 21

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**TOUCHDOWN** Front row, from left: Taylor Kitsch, Gaius Charles and Zach Gilford in NBC’s drama *Friday Night Lights*. (Ankler illustration; Everett Collection)

Welcome to The Optionist. Coming to you a day early this week as we head into the holiday weekend.

We’re going to jump into the picks quickly since everyone is looking ahead to the Memorial Day break (and it doesn’t hurt that I’ve got some great picks for you to ponder while you’re at the beach, grilling or just hanging out).

But first, a few items to flag that caught my attention:

Michael Bay is doing a ripped-from-the-headlines feature about the mission to rescue the two downed pilots in Iran earlier this year, based on a recently announced book by Mitchell Zuckoff (13 Hours). It’s a great story, but I don’t know how the association with Trump is going to wear when this comes out in a couple of years.
Archewell, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s company, has been pretty quiet on the development front since its deal with Netflix fizzled after the release of Markle’s yawner of a lifestyle series. But now, Archewell has snapped up the rights to the British war memoir No Way Out, about a group of Royal Irish Rangers engaged in a fierce battle in Afghanistan. (Just a guess: But this was probably Harry’s idea, right?) They’re developing it at Netflix with Matt Charman (Bridge of Spies) attached to write the script.
Somebody was bound to develop a good sorority rush drama. I’ve certainly flagged a few. Legendary TV has snapped up the rights to the just-released Rush Bible, which is billed as a “straight-talking guide for any panicked young woman (or, let’s get real, her mom) facing rush” and will be fictionalized into a series about rush coaches helping young women navigate the process. I suspect this might not be the only rush drama we see put into development.

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This week: A high school football tale is a touchdown, a horror tale in Black Hollywood and a backlist classic

I dug deep this week and came up with a few gems. I think that this true high school football memoir, which is a little bit Friday Night Lights and a little bit The Lord of the Flies, is particularly promising. I also love this backlist gem that caught my attention when a new edition dropped. Plus, there’s a pair of journalism stories I really liked that have a lot of potential.

🔒The full lineup for paid subscribers:

🏈 A true sports drama for the big screen centered on a high school team that has to coach itself when the coaches strike.

⚾️ A timely backlist gem about a man who becomes consumed by fantasy baseball and falls deeper and deeper into that imaginary world.

🐶ྀི A chilling story that uses horror as a metaphor for racism in a tale about the costs of a Black actress’ rise in old Hollywood and how that debt haunts her grandson.

👸 A Knives Out meets Agatha Christie big-screen ready tale about murder that takes place when a beauty contest gets trapped in the auditorium during a storm.

⚰️ A couple of journalism stories with promise that aren’t fully baked. A throwback story to the 1970s about the first term-paper mills (the OG ChatGPT) and the crisis they caused; plus: meet the “Biotech Barbie.”

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