Shannon Molloy’s acclaimed memoir Fourteen slated for screen
The screen rights to Shannon Molloy’s acclaimed memoir Fourteen, published by Simon & Schuster Australia, have been acquired by Orange Entertainment Co.
Molloy’s stunning account of growing up gay in regional Queensland was published in March 2020 and received rave reviews and widespread media coverage.
‘When COVID struck, I was worried that the book would struggle to be discovered,’ says Molloy. ‘That's what makes the past five months so joyful.’
Fourteen is an at times harrowing account of the homophobic bullying and violence leveled at Molloy by his peers in the town of Yeppoon during high school and the failure of school staff to intervene. But it also celebrates the fierce love of Molloy’s family and the joy of having a tight-knit group of friends. The book’s core focus, according to Molloy, is to affirm the live-saving importance of kindness.
‘From the moment I started reading Fourteen, I knew Shannon’s brave and powerful story would change lives,’ says Dan Ruffino, Managing Director of Simon & Schuster Australia. ‘We are immensely proud and privileged to be his publisher and so thrilled his story is now set to win over a whole new audience.’
Several parties were interested in the screen rights to the book, but Molloy says Orange Entertainment Co is a perfect fit. The production company’s CEO, Kurt Royan, and Head of Content, Dan Lake, reached out to Molloy within a month of the book’s publication.
‘From the moment Kurt and Dan from Orange began talking with us, their passion and authenticity was so obvious,’ says Molloy. ‘They really felt the message of the book and got what I was hoping to achieve in telling my story.
‘As well as their talent and creativity for storytelling, they'll bring a shared vision and a whole lot of heart.’
The screen adaption of Fourteen is Orange Entertainment Co’s first solo project after successful co-productions including ABC’s Retrograde and the upcoming Network 10 docuseries A Dingo’s Got My Baby: The Lindy Chamberlain Story with Easy Tiger and Empress Road.
Molloy, who will be involved in the production process, says, ‘If writing a book one day was my boyhood dream, then seeing this marvelous creation adapted for the screen is a notion that's totally out of this world.’
Fourteen has garnered praise from The Age, The Courier-Mail and The Australian Women’s Weekly and was featured on ABC’s The Drum and Conversations. The audiobook version, narrated by Molloy, was named one of Audible’s Best Audiobooks of 2020.
Since the publication of Fourteen Molloy has been inundated with messages from readers.
‘I've heard from a man in his 70s who suspects his 14-year-old grandson is gay and wanted to know how to support him, a mum who lost her teenager to suicide in the 90s, principals and school librarians keen to spread the message of kindness and hope, a priest who gave me advice on the LGBT conflict with Catholicism, gay men my age and older who had war stories of their own, and many, many people who grew up in small town Australia.
‘I'm so grateful they bought my book and got something from it and I'm touched that many have told me their own struggles.’
For more information please contact:
angus.dalton@simonandschuster.com.au