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Gossip Girl creators lured to Netflix for young adult book adaptation that actually sounds quite decent

The streaming service is adding a translation of 13 Minutes to its release slate

Jacob Stolworthy
Friday 05 August 2016 11:41 BST
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For its six seasons, Gossip Girl managed to uphold a core fanbase which seemed to consist of a varied demographic despite essentially being a teen drama.

The show's creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage have lined up their next project - they've locked down a deal with Netflix to develop 13 Minutes, an adaptation of Sarah Pinborough's young adult novel.

It's quite a bold move from the streaming service considering recent evidence suggesting young novel adaptations could be running out of steam; the final Hunger Games film, released in 2015, was the least successful of the franchise while the final outing of its supposed replacement, Divergent, will bypass a cinema release in favour of a TV movie.

Still, in the right hands, 13 Minutes could become a Stranger Things-style success for the streaming service. The plot - which intriguingly follows a teenage girl who attempts to solve her own murder - bears a resemblance to Pretty Little Liars which has a similar loyal fanbase to that of Gossip Girl.

The CW series Gossip Girl, which is narrated by the titular omniscient blogger, stars Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Ed Westwick, Penn Badgley and Chace Crawford as a group of upper-class friends in New York. It's based on the book series of the same name written by Cecily von Ziegesar.

Lively will next be seen fending off a shark in a new tense thriller titled The Shallows which is released next Friday (11 August).

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