Following a heated bidding war that saw a half dozen offers, Netflix has emerged victorious acquiring the rights to #1 NYT Bestseller Strangers by Belle Burden with Gwyneth Paltrow attached to star in a feature adaptation. Stacey Sher is attached to produce with Heidi Schreck attached to adapt the script. Paltrow is also attached to exec produce.
Published this past January by Dial Press and immediately skyrocketing to #1 on the New York Times best-seller list, the book is set in March 2020, and revolves around Belle Burden. Safe and secure with her family at their house on Martha’s Vineyard, navigating the early days of the pandemic together—building fires in the late afternoons, drinking whisky sours, making roast chicken. Then, with no warning or explanation, her husband of twenty years announced that he was leaving her. Overnight, her caring, steady partner became a man she hardly recognized. He exited his life with her like an actor shrugging off a costume. In Strangers, Burden revisits her marriage, searching for clues that her husband was not who she always thought he was
As she examines her relationship through a new lens, she reckons with her own family history and the lessons she intuited about how a woman is expected to behave in the face of betrayal. Through all of it, she is transformed.
Paltrow can currently be seen starring in Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme, which received 9 Academy Award nominations on its way to becoming A24’s highest grossing film to date.
Schreck’s critically acclaimed play What the Constitution Means to Me played an extended, sold-out run on Broadway, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, nominated for two Tony Awards, and won the OBIE and New York Drama Critics’ Circle awards for Best New American Play. It also toured nationally and was the most performed play in America for in 2023 and 2024. A filmed version premiered on Amazon Prime Video, which Marielle Heller directed.
Belle Burden is an attorney specializing in juvenile immigration cases. Her work has appeared in the New York Times. She lives in New York City with her three children.
Sher most recently produced the A24 thriller, Heretic, starring Hugh Grant, which earned Grant BAFTA, Critics Choice, and Golden Globe nominations. Currently, Sher is producing the Amazon/MGM erotic thriller, Verity, directed by Michael Showalter and starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett.
Burden is represented by Brettne Bloom at The Book Group and UTA. Schreck is represented by Curate Management and UTA.
English (US) ·