A Richard Linklater film: Where’d You Go, Bernadette

Based on the novel by Maria Sempleis 
Richard Linklater films is always an event for true movie buffs.
The Before Midnight/School of Rock/Boyhood director is taking on Semple’s funny, quirky novel about an agoraphobic mom who goes missing. Her daughter Bee, who had been preparing for a family trip to Antarctica, searches through documents and correspondence in order to figure out exactly what happened. Where'd You Go, Bernadette is tightly constructed and is written in many formats.

The Pitch: Bernadette Fox has vanished.
When her daughter Bee claims a family trip to Antarctica as a reward for perfect grades, Bernadette, a fiercely intelligent shut-in, throws herself into preparations for the trip. But worn down by years of trying to live the Seattle life she never wanted, Ms. Fox is on the brink of a meltdown. And after a school fundraiser goes disastrously awry at her hands, she disappears, leaving her family to pick up the pieces.
Which is exactly what Bee does, weaving together an elaborate web of emails, invoices, and school memos that reveals a secret past Bernadette has been hiding for decades. Courtesy of SupermariaSemple

The Pitch: Maria Semple pitched her novel to Seattle book folk with Tom Skerritt, Garth Stein and Ken Jennings weighing in. Where'd You Go Bernadette is an ingenious and unabashedly entertaining novel about a family coming to terms with who they are, and the power of a daughter's love for her mother.  

Preview via NOOK

Timeline: May 21, 2012, A Wall Street Journal Interview with TV writer Maria Semple writes a satirical novel about an unhinged housewife in Seattle, taking shots at self-righteous private school mothers and Microsoft's corporate culture. Maria Semple is the author of the novels Today Will Be Different (2016), Where’d You Go, Bernadette (2012) and This One is Mine (2008), all published by Little, Brown and Co. Before writing fiction, she wrote for the TV shows 90210, Mad About You, Arrested Development and others.

Movie: Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2018)

Directed by Richard Linklater. With Cate Blanchett, Judy Greer, Kristen Wiig, Billy Crudup. After her anxiety-ridden mother disappears, 15-year-old Bee does everything she can to track her down, discovering her troubled past in the process.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette, an international bestseller, has been translated into 30 languages.
It spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list and made over a dozen year-end best lists.
It was short-listed for the Women’s Prize and received the Alex Award from the American Library Association. It’s currently being made into a film starring Cate Blanchett, Kristen Wiig and Billy Crudup. Richard Linklater writes and directs. The movie is slated to open on October 19, 2018.

Today Will Be Different was an instant international bestseller and was featured on the cover of the New York Times book review. It, too, made over a dozen year-end best lists. It’s currently in development with Annapurna pictures as a limited TV series with Maria writing and executive producing.

Maria loves to teach.  She’s taught her popular writing workshop at Hugo House and the Cloud Room in Seattle, the Aspen Writers Conference, and Wordstock in Portland.