Showtime is developing a television version of “Super Sad True Love Story” with Ben Stiller attached to direct, TheWrap has learned.
The show will be based on the 2010 book of the same by Gary Shteyngart. The book is a satire of American materialism and commercialism, as told from the perspective of an unremarkable man named Leonard who falls in love with a Korean-American girl named Eunice.
An epistolary novel, it centers around digital correspondence between Leonard and Eunice, set against the backdrop of dystopian future in which America is on the verge of an economic collapse.
Stiller is an accomplished director, having led film projects like “Tropic Thunder,” “Zoolander” (and its upcoming sequel) and “The Cable Guy.” This project will mark his first foray into directing television.
Shteyngart will executive produce the show along with Stiller and Karl Gajdusek, who is writing the television adaptation. Media Rights Capital will produce.