Shadow and Act has confirmed that Gabrielle Union, Amyale and Rebel Maverick have secured the rights to 500 Words Or Less, the debut novel from Juleah Del Rosario. The team will develop the book for film, and Union will act as producer via her I’ll Have Another production company.

The book, which was just released last week, focuses on Chinese-American high school senior Nic Chen, who, as the official description from Simon and Schuster describes, “attempts to salvage her reputation among her Ivy League-obsessed classmates by writing their college admissions essays and in the process learns big truths about herself.”

We are so excited to adapt this very timely and unique approach in the YA genre with Gabrielle who is unarguably an icon in the genre and is actively championing inclusive stories like this one,” Rebel Maverick’s Matt Nicholas told Shadow and Act.

Amyale’s Manaal Khan and Nicholas will produce. Along with Union as a producer, I’ll Have Another’s Holly Shakoor Fleischer will supervise production.

Juleah Del Rosario

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