Angie Kim’s Happiness Falls is headed to the small screen, with Ethan Hawke set to executive produce, Deadline reports.
Kim’s novel, published last August by Hogarth, is about the mystery of a man who disappears after taking his teenage son to a park. The son witnesses what happened to his father, but because he has autism and a genetic disorder called Angelman syndrome, he is unable to speak. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus wrote, “The claim that a book will change your life often seems like exaggeration. Here the potential is real.”
Hawke will be among the series’ executive producers and might star in the show. It is being developed by Stone Village Television, the production company behind the series adaptations of Emily St. John’s Station Eleven and Richard Russo’s Empire Falls.
Stone Village Television founder Scott Steindorff told Deadline, “This book is very much in my wheelhouse. It deals with a non-speaking boy on the spectrum. I found the family dynamic and the father’s exploration of happiness, along with the complexities of interracial relationships and spectrum issues, to be a perfect fit for me to tell this story.”
And Kim said, “Stone Village’s history of telling powerful, important stories is unmatched, and I’m positive that there is no better team to spearhead my book’s adaptation with passion and sensitivity.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
