I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

Ashley Avis has secured the film rights to adapt Joanne Greenberg's 1964 novel I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, after a decade-long pursuit of the material. Avis will write and direct the feature adaptation, producing alongside Edward Winters through their Winterstone Pictures banner. The novel follows Deborah Blau, a brilliant but troubled Jewish teenager diagnosed with schizophrenia, who constructs an elaborate fantasy world called the Kingdom of Yr. Set in the years following World War II, the story explores her relationship with German psychiatrist Dr. Clara Fried at Chestnut Lodge, where both women navigate the fragile boundary between reality and fantasy. Avis, whose credits include Disney+'s Black Beauty and the Critics Choice-nominated documentary Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West, spent ten years pursuing the rights to Greenberg's work. The project is in early development, with no production timeline or studio attachment announced.