#BookTok might be obsessed with Otessa Moshfegh’s novel My Year Of Rest And Relaxation, but the literary community loved her writing first.
The author has previously won a Hemmingway Foundation Award, been shortlisted for the Booker Prize and even been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Moshfegh has also already has an established history of successful novels turned adaptations, with her 2015 novel Eileen having already been made into a film in late 2023, starring Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKensie.
Now, it seems My Year Of Rest And Relaxation is on the shortlist to also be made into a motion picture, with Yorgos Lanthimos, the director of Oscar nominated film Poor Things working on the script.
The rights to the adaptation were originally snapped up by Margot Robbie’s production company LuckyChap back in 2018, which went on to turn the novel into a German-language stage adaptation. Could the Barbie and Saltburn mogul be turning her eyes to this popular novel next as well? Time will tell.
What Is My Year Of Rest And Relaxation About?
The storyline follows a wealthy unnamed narrator who uses an outlandish cocktail of drugs – Ambien, Ativan, Klonopin, Xanax, Benadryl, and NyQuil – to keep herself asleep for a year. Struggling to stay unconscious and racked by depression, she starts a new drug that sees her unconscious for days on end, but her body is active and she gets up to a series of escapades in New York City. She is aware of them only for the clues left in the apartment when she wakes up: such as glitter and polaroid photos.
She embarks on a project with a local artist that sees her truly commit to life inside the apartment, in an effort to change her worldview.
Moshfegh has already said that the film’s script will diverge from the original novel, but that by and large the adaptation plans to follow the same storyline.
Who Will Be Cast In The Film?
Book adaptations usually face a bit of a challenge in the casting department, as the author has already created a series of roles and descriptions that have already been imagined in the mind’s eye of the reader.
My Year Of Rest And Relaxation is no different, with countless fancastings happening on TikTok. Some suggestions for the roles include:
- Unnamed Narrator: Suki Waterhouse, Jodie Comer, Elle Fanning, Madeleine Cline, Dasha Nekrasova, Anya Taylor-Joy
- Trevor: Jake Gyllenhaal, Alexander Skarsgård, John Hamm
- Reva: Alison Brie, Rachel Sennott, Zoey Deutch
- Dr. Tuttle: Sarah Paulson, Andie McDowell, Emma Thompson, Tilda Swinton
- Narrator’s Mother: Naomi Watts, Gwyneth Paltrow, Julianne Moore
- Ping Xi: Colin Khoo, Steven Yeun
What Is The Release Date For My Year Of Rest And Relaxation?
The film is still in the early stages of scripting, so as yet there is no release date. But watch this space for updates.
