Look, we get that it can be hard to be a studio executive — the constant criticism, the workers striking for living wages, Matt Belloni, etc. To any execs reading this, here’s an easy win: Let Quinta Brunson adapt Emma Cline’s The Guest. Abbott Elementary’s Brunson told The New Yorker that she wanted to adapt that novel in an interview out March 18 and even said she had a concept for how she’d do it. The Guest was the hottest novel of summer 2023, Brunson is the hottest showrunner of the moment, so it’s a match made in heaven, right? Brunson’s not so sure. “Would they let a Black person — me — spearhead a movie where the lead is not Black, and the story is not Black?” Brunson wonders. “Shonda Rhimes did it.” After a hit like Abbott, Brunson should be handed the keys to the castle and allowed to do anything she wants.
While Brunson’s spitballing, “the only thing I’d ever want to remake” is Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. This should be fast-tracked,with Brunson also starring in the Jane Russell role. We’ll leave most of the casting up to her, but who can sing, act, do comedy, and has “the control … over her mouth, her eyes,” that Brunson loves in Marilyn? Well, that would be Oscar nominee Danielle Brooks. Thank us in the acceptance speech.
