EXCLUSIVE: Run-A-Muck, the recently launched, creator-led media company from Pamela Drucker Mann, Ilene Chaiken, and Jennifer Beals, is developing a feature adaptation Stag Dance, a recent novella by Torrey Peters, with the search for a writer and director currently underway.
A genre-defying psychological thriller, Stag Dance is the title novella from Stag Dance: A Quartet, a collection of Peters’ published by Penguin Random House, which was named a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
The story is set in an isolated illegal logging camp, where a winter dance ignites a volatile chain of obsession, jealousy, desire, and betrayal. At its center is Babe Bunyan, a towering, enigmatic axman whose search for identity and belonging drives the story toward an explosive conclusion.
Trevor Adley is attached to produce the adaptation.
In a statement to Deadline, author Peters said, “Any novel that has the word ‘Pulitzer’ attached risks a staid adaptation – so I’m delighted that Run-A-Muck came with an opposite take: a blood-pumping, pulpy, thriller vision for the book—it reinvents the story in a way that makes me desperate to see what happens, truly magic considering how much time I’ve already spent with these characters.”
Explaining Run-A-Muck’s draw to the novella, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer Chaiken said, “Torrey has created a world that feels both mythic and deeply human, both intimate and epic, anchored by one of the most unforgettable characters I’ve ever encountered in fiction. Run-a-Muck is thrilled to be bringing this incredible story to the screen.”
Stag Dance: A Quartet marks Peters’ follow-up to Detransition, Baby, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named one of The New York Times‘ 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. Tommy Dorfman’s Good Girl Productions secured rights to develop a feature adaptation in 2025, as we first reported. The author is repped by UTA, Myman Greenspan Fox, and Neon Literary.
Just as Stag Dance marks Peters’ second book, the film adaptation marks the second feature project announced by Run-A-Muck following Courtside, a romantic comedy set in the world of professional women’s basketball that will feature WNBA Players Gabby Williams, Theresa Plaisance and Syd Colson.
In total, the company currently has more than 20 scripted and unscripted projects in development spanning film, television, digital series, podcasts, and live experiences.
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