EXCLUSIVE: Ever since its 2021 release, readers of Lynn Painter‘s #1 New York Times bestselling BookTok phenomenon Better Than the Movies have been fan-casting the movie version — and now, we can report that Beatrice Kitsos (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) and David Iacono (Jurassic World Rebirth) have landed the lead roles in the Netflix adaptation we announced in May.

A love letter to romantic comedies published by Simon & Schuster, Better Than the Movies centers on Liz Buxbaum (Kitsos), whose obsession with rom-com movies proves very helpful when she schemes with her annoying but cute next-door neighbor (Iacono) to get the attention of her untouchable crush. The book pays homage to all your classic romance tropes — fake relationship, enemies to lovers, boy next door — but spins them on their head in this new take on what happily ever after looks like.

As a testament to its popularity, Better Than the Movies has been appeared on the New York Times monthly YA paperback list for 44 consecutive months and its weekly YA hardcover list for 20 weeks. The BookTok community quickly honed in on Iacono for the role of Liz’s neighbor Wes Bennett, creating reels of the dream casting before the adaptation was announced. Meanwhile, Kitsos took to Instagram to offer herself up for an audition when fans submitted her for Liz.

This marks the second big bit of Lynn Painter-related Deadline news in just two days, as we reported yesterday that Sony has tapped The Fault in Our Stars’ Josh Boone to helm the feature adaptation of her novel Fake Skating.

Julia Hart, who helmed the Sunny Sandler-led coming-of-age Netflix drama Don’t Say Good Luck, out August 14, returns to the director’s chair here, working from a script by Heather Flanders and Hart & Jordan Horowitz.

Horowitz is producing for his and Hart’s Original Headquarters, alongside Shauna Phelan and Melanie Krauss. Previously, Hart and Horowitz co-wrote and teamed to produced Don’t Say Good Luck — a film about a young woman who lands the lead in her high school show just as her mother’s cancer returns — through their banner.

Previously, Kitsos has been seen in the Neon horror film It Lives Inside, as well as such series as Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and iZombie. She is repped by The Characters Talent Agency, Neon Kite, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman.

Known for his work in The Summer I Turned Pretty and Jurassic World Rebirth, Iacono has also been seen in The Flight Attendant, Grand Army, City on a Hill, Fear Street: Prom Queen, and more. Upcoming, he’ll be seen in the rom-com Goodbye Girl from Amazon MGM Studios and Gulfstream Pictures. He is repped by UTA, Rebel Creative Group, and Vainshtein Law, P.C.

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