Elena Ferrante's novel My Brilliant Friend is becoming a TV series, courtesy of HBO


Elena Ferrante is getting the HBO treatment. The elusive author's wildly popular Neapolitan novels are headed to television, with HBO announcing that the miniseries based on the first book, My Brilliant Friend, is set to start filming this summer, Entertainment Weekly reports. The series will be directed by the Italian filmmaker Saverio Costanzo; casting announcements have not yet been made, but Costanzo's script is being co-written with Ferrante.
"Through [Ferrante's] characters, Elena and Lila, we will witness a lifelong friendship set against the seductive social web of Naples, Italy," said HBO's programming president, Casey Bloys, in a statement. "An exploration of the complicated intensity of female friendship, these ambitious stories will no doubt resonate with the HBO audience."
Read more about the mysterious Elena Ferrante and her powerful decision to author her novels with a pseudonym at The Week.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
-
Political cartoons for October 21
Cartoons Tuesday’s political cartoons include a high-profile theft, Epstein files keeping Donald Trump up at night, Halloween costumes and scary GOP stories
-
Five things we learnt from Virginia Giuffre’s memoir
The Explainer Nobody’s Girl recounts ‘harrowing’ details of Giuffre’s suffering as a teenage victim of Jeffrey Epstein and his circle
-
Prince Andrew: a timeline of disgraced royal’s Epstein scandal
In Depth How the Queen’s favourite child went from Falklands War hero to public pariah
-
Gold tops $4K per ounce, signaling financial unease
Speed Read Investors are worried about President Donald Trump’s trade war
-
Electronic Arts to go private in record $55B deal
speed read The video game giant is behind ‘The Sims’ and ‘Madden NFL’
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fine
Speed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in Intel
Speed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance