Claire Vaye Watkins’ I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness is headed to the small screen, Deadline reports.
Tomorrow Studios is adapting Watkins’ novel, published last year by Riverhead, as a television series.
The novel, which shares its name with an Austin, Texas, post-punk band, follows a character, also named Claire Vaye Watkins, who leaves her family after becoming afflicted with postpartum depression. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “Incandescent writing illuminates one woman’s life in flames.”
Author Alissa Nutting (Tampa) is writing the adaptation; she previously adapted her own novel Made for Love as a television series. That show aired on HBO Max for two seasons. Stephanie Laing, who directed several episodes of Made for Love, is set to helm the adaptation of Watkins’ book.
Laing, Nutting, and Watkins are among the show’s executive producers.
In a statement, Tomorrow Studios partners Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements said, “We’re excited to work with her and prolific writer Alissa to bring Claire’s powerful work to television, and we are proud to have a strong team of women spearheading this incredible project.”
Nutting announced the project on Instagram, writing, “A high desert road trip with Addiction, the Manson family, & scorching Daddy issues??? YES PLEASE!!! So thrilled to be adapting genius Claire Vaye Watkins’ fiery novel with co-pilots @stefflaing & Alissa Bachner at Tomorrow Studios! It’s a sunlit quest for the keys to your soul.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
