A film adaptation of Emma Straub’s “American Fantasy” novel is being planned starring Elisabeth Moss of “Imperfect Women” and “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
Optioned by Moss and Lindsay McManus’ Love & Squalor Pictures, American Fantasy was published by Penguin Random House in April 2026. The story follows Annie, a newly divorced woman who embarks on a nostalgic cruise headlined by the ’90s boy bands that were the soundtrack of her youth, only to unexpectedly reconsider who she is and who she still wants to be.
Moss and McManus will produce the film with Straub as executive producer. There are currently no writers, cast, or distributors attached to this project.
Moss was first introduced to the New York Times best-selling novel when Straub, a famous bartender and author of This Time Tomorrow, All Adults Here, Vacationers and Modern Lovers, appeared on Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live the same night and presented Moss with a copy of the novel.
Love & Scholar Pictures recently launched two new series: “Imperfect Women,” for Apple TV, in which Moss co-stars with Kerry Washington and Kate Mara, and “The Testements,” a sequel to “The Handmaid’s Tale,” for Hulu. Next, the banner says that David Shore’s Hulu series “Conviction,” also starring Moss, is scheduled to begin production this month in New York.
“Emma’s candid and humorous portrayal of the humiliating experience of being a fan is so rare and so much fun to read that we knew we had to find a way to bring it to film,” Moss and McManus said in a joint statement Monday.
Straub added, “Elisabeth Moss has talent oozing from every pore, and I’m glad to have been caught in the tractor beam of her gaze. How lucky to have such tenacity on the side of this story! I’m stunned. Thank you to my fairy godfather, Andy Cohen!”
Moss and Love & Squalor are repped by WME, Ocean Avenue, Ribisi Entertainment Group and Hansen Jacobson.
Mr. Straub is repped by WME.
