Rebecca Serle's One Italian Summer is headed to the big screen, with Brie Larson leading the adaptation and a 2028 release now on the books. Harry Bradbeer, the guy who gave us Fleabag and Enola Holmes, is directing, and honestly that pairing tells you what you need to know about the tone: warm, a little sharp around the edges, and probably going to make you cry on an airplane.

The novel, if you haven't gone through your summer-romance-with-grief phase yet, follows Katy, a woman reeling from the death of her mother who takes the trip to Positano they were supposed to take together. Then things get weird, in that lovely Serle way where the emotional rug pull sneaks up on you. It was a bestseller, and it's exactly the kind of book that gets passed between friends with the instruction to not read the back cover, just read it.

This one's been in the works for a while, so seeing an actual release year attached feels real in a way it didn't before. You can catch the full details over at MSN's report.

Larson's an interesting fit, and I mean that as a compliment. She can be completely closed off on screen and you still can't stop watching her, which matters when your lead spends half a book emotionally hollowed out. Pair her with Bradbeer's knack for grief dressed up as comedy, the thing he did better than maybe anyone on Fleabag, and this could land a lot harder than the phrase "beach read adaptation" suggests.

But 2028. That's the part I keep sitting with. Two years out, minimum, before we're watching the Amalfi Coast in a theater. The upside of a long lead date is you get a director who actually has time to make the thing instead of racing a release window, and an adaptation like this needs the room. Serle's book lives in small moments, not plot machinery, and small moments are what get flattened when a movie's rushing.

I read the book in basically one sitting a couple summers ago, on a porch, with an iced coffee I let melt entirely because I wasn't getting up. That's the energy this movie needs to protect. If it ends up being two hours of postcard shots with a sadness subplot bolted on, it'll be a waste of great source material and everyone involved knows it.

So, filed away for 2028, right next to Black Panther 3 on a calendar that's already getting crowded. Worth it? If Bradbeer brings even half the heart he brought to Fleabag, absolutely. In the meantime, read the book now so you can be that person in the theater whispering "it's different in the book" to whoever got dragged along.