Per Deadline, in a competitive bidding war with several U.S. buyers, Netflix has secured adaptation rights for the play Weather Girl. Still in early stage development, the project currently has both the play’s writer, Brian Watkins (Outer Range), and its originating star, Julia McDermott (Up Here, Women of the Movement), attached.
Directed by Tyne Rafaeli (Tell Me Lies, Evil), Weather Girl recently premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where it staged sold-out shows throughout August to rave reviews. The one-woman play is an apocalyptic dark comedy that follows Stacey, a Californian weather girl, in meltdown mode. Stacey regularly delivers bulletins about our dying planet while reckoning with her own mental health before she discovers something that will “save us all.” The play touches on themes of environmentalism, the climate emergency and consumer capitalism.
The play was staged by Francesca Moody Productions, which was also behind the original one-person stage productions of Fleabag and Baby Reindeer. Netflix is apparently looking to further bank off the buzz afforded to Baby Reindeer by following the same production trajectory. After the stage premiere of Weather Girl at Edinburgh Fringe, it will receive its own, hopefully-just-as-successful television adaptation series.
On a separate note, Deadline reports that film studio A24 was also in town for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and is interested in staging U.S. version of Weather Girl at the off-Broadway theater they purchased last year.