Entertainment

One of 2014's Best Books is Going to Be a Film

by Dina Gachman

She made feminism funny with her book of essays How To Be a Woman, and now bestselling Brit author Caitlin Moran’s latest book How To Build a Girl is getting adapted for film.

If you’ve read How To Be a Woman or Moran’s column in The Times , you’ll recognize that How To Build a Girl might be a novel, but the story and characters are also very closely tied to Moran’s own life. It’s about an awkward teen misfit named Johanna Morrigan who wears top hats, has sex with whomever she wants even though they suck, and changes her name to Dolly Wilde in an effort to escape her boring working-class town and become someone fascinating. Like Johanna/Dolly, the book is funny, a little sloppy, and endearing.

Debra Hayward and Alison Owen, who recently formed Monumental Pictures, optioned the book, and called Dolly/Johanna, “one of the great female literary icons.” Hayward and Owen (Saving Mr. Banks, The Other Boleyn Girl, Jane Eyre) are smart producers who care about bringing strong female characters to the screen, so the book (which has sold half a million copies and counting) is in good hands.

When the book came out, Moran told Bustle that she hoped to make How To Build a Girl into a trilogy, so maybe this could be like an indie, down-and-dirty Hunger Games franchise, minus the VFX, the flaming costumes, and the gigantic budget. There's no release date and no details (there are plenty of great female directors who could take this on), but the story should make a raunchy, hilarious film if they pull it off. It could be American (or British) Pie, for girls. "Why aren’t there any stories about female masturbation?" Moran asked back in our September interview.

Well, now we're getting one.