Torrey Peters’ Detransition, Baby is headed to the big screen, with Tommy Dorfman set to produce, Deadline reports.
Peters’ novel, published in 2021 by One World/Random House, follows three people whose lives collide after one of them becomes pregnant. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus called the book “smart, funny, and bighearted.”
The book, a national bestseller, won the PEN/Hemingway Award, and was shortlisted for the Gotham Book Prize, the Lambda Literary Award for transgender fiction, and the National Book Critics Circle Award’s John Leonard Prize for the best first book in any genre. Peters followed up the book earlier this year with Stag Dance, a book that collects stories and a short novel.
The film adaptation will be produced by actor Dorfman’s Good Girl Productions, which launched in June. The company is also working on screen adaptations of Allie Rowbottom’s Aesthetica, Mariko Tamaki’s Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, and James Frankie Thomas’ Idlewild.
“When I read Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters’ story instantly resonated with me,” Dorfman told Deadline. “The novel is smart, accessible, and filled with complex characters and plot lines never explored on screen. And like all the greatest stories, the story finds universality in its specificity.”
Dorfman shared news of the adaptation on her Instagram account, writing, “detransition, baby ! the movie ! seeking: writer/director”.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
