Netflix developing film about Jessica Watson, the teen who sailed around the world by herself
Netflix has a lot of teens in its roster of shows and various made-for-streaming films: Babysitting teens, romance teens, murder teens—a lot of those, weirdly enough—and a whole wide gamut of teenagers to suit your various streaming-feelings needs. Now it’s digging even deeper into the always lucrative field of Inspirational Teens, with Deadline announcing that the service has picked up a new project about former teen sailing sensation Jessica Watson.
For those of you who don’t remember, Watson was the young Australian woman who—at an age when most of us were struggling to circumnavigate the high school lunch room without the kids at the cool table mocking our taste in novels with dragons on the cover—managed to sail all the way around the world, solo. (Or mostly around the world, at least; there’s some argument over whether her trip “counts” due to the route she took, because the people who maintain the “Did you sail all the way around the world?” records are, shockingly, pretty into the minutiae of record-keeping and rules.) This was back in 2009, when Watson was just 16; she’s since become Young Australian of the Year, a holder of the Medal of the Order of Australia, and a best-selling author, the latter courtesy of her memoir about her journey, True Spirit.
Said memoir is now being adapted into a biopic for the streaming service, with Sarah Spillane serving as director and co-adapter of the screenplay, the latter with Cathy Randall. Watson will consult on the project. No word yet on who’ll be playing the boat.