Straight White Male Optioned for TV

Yellow Bird UK has optioned the television rights to Straight White Male, a novel that follows the personal and professional misadventures of Irish writer Kennedy Marr.

For 15 years, Marr has lived the high life in L.A.—womanizing, writing movies, and spending every dollar he earned. Time (and an unpaid tax bill) catches up with him and he’s forced to return to England to accept a lucrative prize from the English department of a university in Warwickshire. John Niven (Kill Your Friends, The Second Coming, The Sunshine Cruise Company) is adapting the story for the small screen.

Straight White Male is the second project from Yellow Bird UK, following its recent announcement of Young Wallander, which has been commissioned by Netflix.

Niven commented: “I’ve long thought that Straight White Male had all the ingredients for a great TV series and that Kennedy Marr’s singular approach to life and love is more relevant than ever. Getting the chance to develop the show with Yellow Bird UK, who share my passion for this character, feels ridiculously fortunate.”

Berna Levin, creative director for Yellow Bird, added: “In his brilliant novel, John Niven not only skewers the crisis of contemporary masculinity in a compassionate, comic, and provocative way, but he’s created one of the most memorable fictional anti-heroes of our time, Kennedy Marr. Kennedy often says what we all wish we could say, and his undeniable flaws mask a compelling, emotionally engaging character, who I’m thrilled we’re bringing to life on screen.”