Mary H.K. Choi’s Yolk is headed to the small screen, Variety reports.
The production company Picturestart has optioned the rights to Choi’s young adult novel, which was published in March of 2021 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.
The novel tells the story of two sisters who are estranged until one of them is diagnosed with cancer. A critic for Kirkus praised the book as “poignant” and “intense, raw, textured.”
Choi will serve as screenwriter for the series alongside Jessica O’Toole, the Jane the Virgin and Charmed writer who’s also working on XO, Kitty, an upcoming Netflix series that follows a character from the film trilogy based on Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series of novels.
Picturestart CEO Erik Feig praised Choi as “viciously funny but deeply empathetic at the same time.”
“Mary is quickly proving herself to be the voice of a generation, applying her keen observational eye to the universal themes of family, identity, and belonging in this peerless coming-of-age story,” Feig said.
Choi shared news of the adaptation on Instagram, writing, “SO. PUMPED. Also exquisitely in love with this entire team so hard already. I can’t wait to make this so good and so squish and so sob. Your Korean moms are gonna be heated at the wrinkles from the fuggo scrunch weeps and the deeeeeeep laugh lines. I can’t wait to bring this story to you with sound and movement and so much more magic.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
