Zola Director Janicza Bravo To Write & Helm Series ‘A Suspense Novelist’s Trail of Deceptions’ Series Adaptation With Jake Gyllenhaal Starring

Deadline is reporting that Annapurna has tapped Janicza Bravo, the writer and director behind the forthcoming Zola, to write and direct a series adaptation of Ian Parker’s New Yorker article A Suspense Novelist’s Trail of Deceptions, which has Jake Gyllenhaal attached to star. Published in February 2019, Parker’s story explores the complex life of former book editor Dan Mallory, whose debut psychological thriller, The Woman in the Window, written under the pseudonym A.J. Finn, was number one on the New York Times Bestseller list, the first debut novel to do so in twelve years.

The series will follow an unreliable narrator who nurses brain tumors he does not have and mourns family members who are not dead while preying on people’s sympathy to get away with almost anything. Bravo will co-write the pilot with Brian Savelson.

Bravo serves as an executive producer alongside Gyllenhaal and Riva Marker for Nine Stories as well as Annapurna’s Megan Ellison, Sue Naegle, Sammy Scher, and Susan Goldberg. Savelson and Parker are co-executive producers.

Zola Is the second feature from Bravo following her 2017 debut indie comedy Lemon. Based on the viral Twitter thread detailing a stripper’s cross-country road trip gone wrong, Zola premiered at this year’s Sundance and will be released via A24 and Sony International. She’s also directed episodes for Atlanta, Dear White People, and FX’s Cate Blanchett-starrer Mrs. America.