Here’s a unique situation. Scarlett Johansson is partnering with Netflix for a series adaptation of The Nanny Diaries, based on the New York Times bestseller by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. Johansson starred in the 2007 feature adaptation of the novel, alongside Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti, Donna Murphy, and Alicia Keys. Johansson is producing the Netflix project from Greg Berlanti’s Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television.
Other Book-to-Screen Adaptations From Netflix
Netflix is green-lighting book adaptations faster than ever, with plans to develop titles like Black Hole, The Corrections, Lights Out, and So Far Gone already in the works. The streamer already has adaptations of books like Alice Feeney’s His & Hers, Bridgerton, The Queen’s Gambit, and Leave the World Behind that subscribers can watch now on the service.
Amy Chozik will write, showrun, and executive-produce Netflix’s The Nanny Diaries alongside Jenny Bicks, which focuses on a college graduate who takes a job as a nanny for a rich New York family. Ensconced in their home, she has to juggle their dysfunction, a new romance, and the spoiled brat in her charge.
What’s The Nanny Diaries About?
For more details about The Nanny Diaries, here’s a synopsis of McLaughlin and Kraus’s novel, via Amazon:
Wanted:
One young woman to take care of a four-year-old boy. Must be cheerful, enthusiastic, and selfless–bordering on masochistic. Must relish sixteen-hour shifts with a deliberately nap-deprived preschooler. Must love getting thrown up on, literally and figuratively, by everyone in his family. Must enjoy the delicious anticipation of ridiculously erratic pay. Mostly, must love being treated like fungus found growing out of employers Hermès bag. Those who take it personally need not apply.
Who wouldn’t want this job? Struggling to graduate from NYU and afford her microscopic studio apartment, Nanny takes a position caring for the only son of the wealthy X family. She rapidly learns the insane amount of juggling involved to ensure that a Park Avenue wife who doesn’t work, cook, clean, or raise her own child has a smooth day.
When the Xs’ marriage begins to disintegrate, Nanny ends up involved way beyond the bounds of human decency or good taste. Her tenure with the X family becomes a nearly impossible mission to maintain the mental health of their four-year-old, her own integrity, and, most importantly, her sense of humor. Over nine tense months, Mrs. X and Nanny perform the age-old dance of decorum and power as they test the limits of modern-day servitude.
Berlanti and Johansson have been kicking around the idea of developing a series adaptation of The Nanny Diaries since 2024’s Fly Me to the Moon, which Berlanti directed and Johansson starred in. Now is finally the time to bring the project together and tell a fuller version of the story in Netflix’s episodic format. Huzzah!
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