Picture it: it’s 2006 and you head into your middle school library. A new book series has hit the shelf. The thick book with a girl on the cover next to a plant catches your eye. It’s Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. You pick up the first book in the series, and it plants a seed for a love of dystopian young adult fiction that will be realized in books like Divergent and The Hunger Games years later.

Now, 18 years later, a movie based on Uglies is hitting Netflix in just a few short months. In a post by author Scott Westerfeld on X (formerly Twitter) the movie will be coming to the streaming service on September 13.

Back in 2022, actress Joey King talked with Collider for an episode of Collider Ladies Night. There she said she’s actually been campaigning for the movie to be made. “I’ve been trying to get this movie made for years, too. I’m obsessed. I was trying to obtain the book rights for so long and they were just always not available, so then I got ‘em! I got ‘em and then I said, ‘Hey Netflix, do you want to make this with me?’”

King plays the main protagonist, Tally Youngblood. The series, set in a dystopian world where, at the age of 16, people go under an operation to become ‘pretty’, kicks off when Tally’s best friend Shay runs off to avoid the operation. The series spans four books: Uglies, Pretties, Specials, and Extras.

The ‘Uglies’ Movie Challenged King as a Producer

King has already had experience producing, with the Kissing Booth movies she also stars in, but since she was starting from zero with the movie, she told Collider in 2022 that she was grateful to have found Netflix. “I was really lucky that [Netflix was] on board with it, and that we got not only Scott Westerfeld’s stamp of approval, but his enthusiasm. He is so excited and I’m such a fan of his.”

It’s not been said whether or not the movie will span all four books or, depending on its success, be the starting point for a quartet of movies adapting the series for the big screen. The IMDb information is sparse, but it does note that stars such as Laverne Cox (Orange is the New Black) is set to be a part of the cast.

Uglies will release on Netflix in the U.S. September 13.

via Collider