Amblin Partners Adapting Judy Batalion’s ‘The Light of Days’ Book

Deadline
November 2, 2020

EXCLUSIVE: Amblin Partners is developing a screen adaptation to the soon to be released The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos from Canadian-born author Judy Batalion. The book documents the stories of female Jewish resistance fighters who served as saboteurs, couriers, and caretakers of those in hiding during the occupation of Poland during World War II.

The Giver and The Current War screenwriter Michael Mitnick and Batalion are writing the screenplay. Amblin’s President of Production Holly Bario and Creative Exec John Buderwitz are overseeing the project for the studio. CAA brokered the rights deal with Amblin on behalf of Batalion.

Batalion’s The Light of Days will be released in April 2021 via William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins. Her book White Walls: A Memoir about Motherhood, Daughterhood, and the Mess in Between was optioned by Warner Brothers, where Batalion is also developing the TV series Cluttered.

Mitnick is also currently working on a Siegfried and Roy television limited series for Peter Chernin, The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Idris Elba at Netflix, and the Lily & The Octopus adaptation at Amazon.

Mitnick is repped by Grandview and Sloane Offer Weber and Dern, while Batalion is repped by Gernert Co. for publishing, Circle of Confusion, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris.