EXCLUSIVE: It’s been more then a decade since Josh Boone turned The Fault In Our Stars into a smash hit and he now has his sights set on another best-selling adaptation he’s ready to lace up for. Sources tell Deadline Sony Pictures and Will Gluck’s Olive Bridge Entertainment have tapped Boone to direct Fake Skating, a. new movie based on Lynn Painter’s New York Times best-selling book. The studio has also dated the pic for July 16, 2027.   

The screenplay was penned by Morgan Lehmann and Victoria Bata with Boone and his writing partner Knate Lee handling revisions.  This will be the first book from the best-selling author to be adapted for the screen.

Fake Skating is an emotional high school hockey romance about childhood sweethearts whose icy reunion in their hockey-loving hometown unexpectedly thaws when they fake a romantic relationship. Deadline first reported the studio coming on to the project this past March and insiders say they have been moved fast to prioritize it with a greenlight coming last week, a sign of how much confidence they have in Boone with no cast yet attached.

Insiders say the studio sees this as is the perfect summertime movie, especially since there are currently no movies slated for young women next summer. The Fault in Our Stars also had a summer bow and was also smash hit even as it went up against the heavy hitting tentpoles. Boone recently directed Regretting You based on Colleen Hoover’s best-seller starring Mckenna Grace and Mason Thames. He is repped by WME and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole. 

Will Gluck and Jacqueline Monetta are producing and Madison Jones is executive producing on behalf of Olive Bridge Entertainment. Lynn Painter will also serve as an executive producer. Sony Pictures has built a reputation for successful book adaptations. Recent films include the box office successes It Ends With Us which grossed over $350 million globally, the critically acclaimed Little Women which grossed over $200 million globally and Where the Crawdads Sing. Upcoming is the adaptation of Kristen Hannah’s New York Times Best Seller The Nightingale starring Dakota and Elle Fanning. 

Painter is the #1 New York Times and internationally best-selling author of Better Than the Movies, The Do-Over, Betting on You, Mr. Wrong Number, The Love Wager, Nothing Like the Movies, and Fake Skating. Winner of the 2025 Goodreads Choice Award, Fake Skating has more than 200,000 copies in print and has appeared on the New York Times YA Hardcover Bestseller list every week since its release in September 2025, holding the #1 spot for 15 of those weeks. The novel has also been translated into 16 languages.

Lehmann is a fast-rising screenwriter. She sparked a six-way bidding war for her debut feature spec, an erotic teen fan fiction comedy, which was acquired by A24 with Emma Stone’s Fruit Tree attached to produce. She is repped by CAA and Untitled Entertainment.

Victoria Bata’s writing credits include Hulu’s Tell Me Lies and the upcoming film Watch Dogs. She is repped by UTA, Kaplan Perrone, and HJTH.

Olive Bridge Entertainment is repped by UTA and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern. Painter is repped by UTA and BookEnds Literary Agency.

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