Filming is expected to begin in Chicago this September on the Netflix adaptation of Lynn Painter’s bestselling novel Better Than the Movies.
Directed by Julia Hart, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jordan Horowitz, the feature is based on Painter’s 2021 young adult romance that became a breakout success through BookTok before spending months on the USA TODAY and New York Times bestseller lists. The novel’s popularity led to the 2024 sequel, Nothing Like the Movies.
Better Than the Movies follows Liz Buxbaum, a hopeless romantic who has spent her life believing love should play out like the classic romantic comedies she adores. When her longtime crush moves back to town, she teams up with her sarcastic next-door neighbor, Wes Bennett, hoping he’ll help her finally win the boy of her dreams. Instead, the arrangement begins to change the way she sees both love and the person who has been beside her all along.
Hart directs after previously helming Fast Color, I’m Your Woman and Disney+’s Stargirl. She co-wrote the screenplay with Horowitz, her longtime creative partner and producing collaborator.
The production will be based at The Fields Studios. Filming is expected to take place in Chicago from September through October. Cast has not yet been announced.
The adaptation joins a growing list scheduled to shoot in Illinois this year.
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