Serial. If you are on the Internet, you’ve probably heard of it, and unless you are a contrarian type who refuses to do things simply because they are popular—or you have a rare and medically unprecedented allergy to anything Ira Glass-related—you may very well have heard an episode or nine. Serial’s exceptional popularity (it set a record for the fastest podcast to reach five million downloads earlier this week) has naturally caught the attention of Hollywood producers, who have been courting agents for Serial’s parent podcast This American Life with offers to produce a movie version of the nonfiction crime drama.
But fans afraid of a Hollywood whitewash of the story have little to fear (yet) as producers of the show say they aren’t returning the film industry’s affection for their podcast, at least right now. Serial co-creator Julie Snyder tells Entertainment Weekly that “I’m not going to deal with [selling movie rights] now. I have no time and no interest,” while production and operations manager Emily Condon tells The Hollywood Reporter that the team is “not engaging in those kinds of discussions” with producers. However, Condon’s statement has one big “but,” as she leaves the possibility of negotiations after Serial’s last episode has aired in December wide open. (Frankly, though, if podcast purists have anything to worry about, it’s not a movie. It’s TV.)
So even if Serial does manifest itself in non-podcast form, it’s going to be a while. Might we suggest catching up on The A.V. Club’s new podcast-about-a-podcast, The Serial Serial, in the meantime?
[story via /Film]