Lion Forge Entertainment (Hair Love) has secured the rights to adapt Canadian author Sarah Mlynowski’s popular tween book series Best Wishes.

The St. Louis-based prodco is looking to develop multiple live-action films for streamers/platforms based on this NYT bestselling book series. Scholastic Press has so far released three Best Wishes titles since 2022, and a fourth is due out this November. 

The first movie will adapt the first book (pictured), with Eydie Faye (The Slumber Party) attached to pen the script. On board to produce the pic are Lion Forge’s David Steward II (founder/CEO), Stephanie Sperber (president/CCO) and Jennilee Cummings (SVP of live action).

In each Best Wishes book, a girl (a different one in every title) receives a package in the mail that includes a magic bracelet and instructions on how to wish their problems away—but this seemingly ideal situation comes with a twist that eventually delivers a learning lesson. 

This template is tailor-made to adapt into a kid-focused cinematic universe, led by diverse characters who are “linked together by a mythology,” noted Steward and Sperber in a joint statement. The tween appeal also runs high, with the stories tackling relatable coming-of-age struggles (like getting dumped by your BFF or dealing with the challenges of being the middle sibling).

LA’s Imagine Kids+Family had previously picked up the rights in 2022 before the first book hit retail, but this option eventually expired. Sperber, who was Imagine’s president at the time, joined Lion Forge in 2023.

In addition to Best Wishes, Mlynowski is also well-established in the middle grade publishing space for her popular Whatever After book series (18 titles) and as co-author of the eight-book series Upside-Down Magic, which Disney Channel adapted into a same-name movie in 2020.

Scholastic’s tween catalogue has been in demand lately, with Wings of Fire (Tui Sutherland) and Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond (Sayantani DasGupta) getting optioned for fresh TV adaptations over the past month.  

Image courtesy of Scholastic Press