Brie Larson is set to star in and executive produce a film adaptation of Rebecca Serle’s bestselling novel One Italian Summer for Paramount Pictures, which has scheduled the film for release on May 12, 2028.
Larson will play Katy, a young woman whose long-anticipated trip to the Amalfi Coast is upended by an unimaginable loss. The story follows Katy as she travels to Positano, Italy, on what was meant to be a mother-daughter trip with her mother, Carol, only to make the journey alone after Carol’s sudden death. Once she arrives on the coast, however, Katy is met with an extraordinary twist: her mother reappears before her, alive, sun-tanned and 30 years old, exactly as she was decades earlier, before meeting Katy’s father. Over the course of the summer, Katy gets to know Carol not as her mother, but as the young woman she once was, leading to unexpected discoveries and a deeper understanding of love, life and herself.
Harry Bradbeer, the Emmy-winning director and executive producer behind Fleabag, is set to direct the film, with Larson serving as an executive producer alongside him. Serle will also executive produce, joined by David Stone of TFC Productions, while Temple Hill Entertainment will produce the film.
Larson won an Academy Award in 2016 for her performance in Room and most recently starred in Apple TV+’s Lessons in Chemistry, earning an Emmy nomination for the role. She also voiced Princess Rosalina in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Her upcoming slate includes FX’s Cry Wolf, Amazon MGM Studios’ Close Personal Friends and Sony’s Skeletons, adding One Italian Summer to an already busy stretch of projects.
Bradbeer made his feature directorial debut with Netflix’s Enola Holmes and is currently in post-production on the streamer’s A Matter of Time, starring Ben Stiller and Nicholas Galitzine.
One Italian Summer became an instant New York Times bestseller upon its March 2022 release through Atria Books, further cementing Serle’s reputation as a go-to author for emotionally driven, mother-daughter-centred fiction following the success of her earlier novels In Five Years and The Dinner List.
The book blends grief and self-discovery with a touch of magical realism, following Katy’s reckoning with an idealised version of her mother against the backdrop of Positano’s cliffsides and coastal charm. The novel has drawn comparisons to other bestselling magical-realism titles such as The Midnight Library, and its atmospheric depiction of the Amalfi Coast has been widely praised by readers and critics alike, even as some reviews noted the complicated, at times codependent nature of Katy and Carol’s relationship as a central tension running through the story.
Temple Hill Entertainment, the production company behind the project, is represented by UTA. The deal was first reported by Deadline.
Founded by Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen, Temple Hill Entertainment has built its reputation largely through adapting bestselling novels for the screen, with credits including The Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns, The Maze Runner franchise and The Twilight Saga. The company has also established a publishing partnership with HarperCollins to develop original book ideas directly for future film and television adaptations, making One Italian Summer a natural fit for a studio with a long track record of turning emotionally driven, character-focused novels into films.
With an Oscar winner leading the cast, a proven director from one of television’s most acclaimed recent series behind the camera, and source material that has already resonated strongly with readers, One Italian Summer is shaping up to be one of Paramount’s more emotionally driven literary adaptations heading toward its 2028 release.
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