DEADLINE – EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is developing The Nanny Diaries, a series based on the #1 New York Times bestseller by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. Scarlett Johansson, who starred in the 2007 feature adaptation of the novel, is executive producing the project, from Greg Berlanti‘s Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television where the company is under an overall deal.

The Nanny Diaries joins Netflix’s book-to-screen development slate that includes Black Hole, The Corrections, Lights Out and So Far Gone. The streamer’s adaptations have yielded several titles on the Most Popular English series and film lists: His & Hers, Bridgerton, The Queen’s Gambit and Leave the World Behind.

Written and executive produced by Amy Chozick (The Girls on the Bus) and Jenny Bicks (Sex and the City) who will serve as showrunners, The Nanny Diaries centers on Annie, a broke, aspiring writer in search of a story who takes a nanny job for a magnetic Upper East Side socialite, plunging into an elite world of unimaginable excess. When she lands the book deal of her dreams to go undercover and expose the salacious lives of the ultra-rich, Annie must try to keep up this double life even as she grows attached to the people and this world… and finds out what her elusive boss is actually capable of.

Berlanti and Johansson first discussed the idea of adapting the book into a TV series while shooting Apple’s 2024 movie Fly Me to the Moon, which Berlanti directed and Johansson starred in. Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Leigh London Redman executive produce for Berlanti Productions alongside Johannson, Jonathan Lia and Keenan Flynn for These Pictures as well as Gary Barber and Sean Hoagland for Spyglass Media Group. Nikki Cooper Molina is overseeing for Berlanti Productions. Warner Bros. TV is the studio.

The 2002 novel The Nanny Diaries by Kraus and McLaughlin, both former nannies, has been translated into more than 20 languages. Written and directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, its 2007 film adaptation starred Johansson, Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti and Chris Evans.

In 2025, book adaptations drove over 9B global views on Netflix and represented nearly 20% of total view hours. The Netflix Global Top 10 lists featured a book adaptation every single week, a streak that has continued through the first 13 weeks of this year. New series and films based on books coming in 2026 include East of Eden, Pride and Prejudice, Little House on the Prairie, Remarkably Bright Creatures and The Whisper Man.

Netflix’s adaptations have boosted their literary source material too, including the recent release of the movie People We Meet on Vacation sending Emily Henry’s novel back onto the NYT bestseller list as it saw a 97% increase in sales across all formats in the two weeks after the film debut, according to the Penguin Publishing Group.

Chozick, a journalist who has worked for The New York Times, is the author of bestselling memoir Chasing Hillary, which she adapted into the HBO Max series The Girls on the Bus. Her debut novel, With Friends Like You, will be published by Penguin Random House in July. Chozick is adapting the novel into a film with producer Brad Weston and Fifth Season and has three series in development at Apple and Netflix.

Writer-producer Bicks’ TV series credits include Dawson’s Creek, on which she worked with Berlanti, Seinfeld and HBO’s Sex and the City, where she wrote across all six seasons and rose to executive producer, sharing in the show’s Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy Award. She also created and showran ABC’s Men in Trees (ABC) and Showtime’s The Big C. Her feature credits include The Greatest Showman and Rio 2.

In this web exclusive, actress Scarlett Johansson talks about how dealing with her sensitive skin for years led to her founding a new line of skin care products, The Outset. She also discusses her life-changing roles, and the impact of artificial intelligence.

VARIETY – Scarlett Johansson told CBS Sunday Morning that the early 2000s were a “really harsh time” to be a young woman in Hollywood. The “Lost in Translation” star said during that period, it was “socially acceptable” for female actors to be “pulled apart for how they looked.”

“It was tough. There was a lot placed on how women looked,” Johansson said. “What was offered at that time for women my age, as far as acting roles or opportunities, was much slimmer than it is now.”

Johansson added that there are “much more empowering roles” for young women in 2026 than when she was “in my 20s.” When Johansson was coming up in the industry, she said it was “Slim Pickens.”

“You would get really pigeon-holed and offered the same [roles]. It would be like the other woman, or the side piece, the bombshell,” she said. “That was the archetype that was prevalent when I was that age.”

Johansson found solace from typecasting in the New York theater scene. Taking a break from Hollywood also taught her to wait for “the right role” rather than give in to the pressure to “work constantly.”

“It’s something that I learned over time, but it’s hard,” she explained. “Once you start working, you really feel like every job is going to be your last and that if you get opportunities to work, you have to keep taking them. Even though they might not be as varied as the jobs that really give you pleasure.”

She continued. “Every actor feels like that, because it is so competitive, and I think once you do have the spotlight, you want to keep it on you. I mean, that’s the instinct I think for a young actor, or any actor.”

Johannson was just 17 years old when she made her breakout debut in Sofia Coppola’s 2003 drama “Lost in Translation.” Some of her other early film credits include “The Perfect Score,” “Match Point,” “The Prestige,” “The Other Boleyn Girl” and “Iron Man 2.”

VARIETY – Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell and Tom Waits have joined Brad Bird‘s “Ray Gunn” voice cast.

Johansson, Rockwell and Waits will join voice actor John Ratzenberger in the Skydance Animation feature.

According to the logline, “Ray Gunn” is set in Metropia, a gigantic city in an alternate future as seen from 1939, where private eye Raymond Gunn is drawn into a case involving aliens, murder and a multimedia star named Venus Nova.

Johansson who voices Nova said, ““Having the opportunity to collaborate with Brad Bird is a career milestone for me; I have loved his work my entire life. This project is so uniquely special because it is a total realization of where Brad is currently on his artistic journey. I can’t wait for audiences to see this extraordinary animation that looks like nothing else out there.”

Bird is on board as producer, writer and director. He helmed 2004’s “The Incredibles” and 2018’s “Incredibles 2,” and this marks his first film since 2018. Bird is also suiting up again to write and produce “Incredibles 3” slated for release in 2028. He said, “‘Ray Gunn’ has been in my mind for over 30 years. The film is a blend of sci-fi and classic detective movies from the ’40s…it’s Maltese Falcon meets Buck Rogers. I’ve been a fan of both of those sort of genres, and blending them together seemed fun, and a chance to play with a lot of very cinematic elements, and extreme characters.” He added, “There’s a big chunk of people who don’t watch animation. That’s a group I’m anxious to persuade because it’s an amazing art form that is way too limited in people’s minds. Animation as a medium is too interesting to limit what kind of stories can be told.”

Skydance Animation’s John Lasseter, David Ellison and Dana Goldberg are set to produce the film which will be released by Netflix later this year.

In 2023, Skydance Animation struck a deal to exclusively release its animated movies directly to Netflix in an arrangement that spans multiple years.

Earlier this year, Netflix won the animated feature Oscar for “KPop Demon Hunters” which became its most-watched movie of 2025.

Also on its animation slate are the upcoming “Steps,” featuring Amanda Seyfried as the voice of Cinderella, and “Swapped,” abuddy comedy about a small woodland creature (voiced by Michael B. Jordan) and a majestic bird (voiced by Juno Temple).

Johansson was the recipient of Variety’s Legends and Groundbreakers Award at the Newport Beach Film Festival in 2025. She worked her way up to being the industry’s top-paid female star, locking in (and later fighting to be fairly compensated for) that title as Marvel’s Black Widow character.

Last year, she appeared in “Jurassic World: Rebirth” and she brought her feature directing debut “Eleanor the Great” to Cannes. Next up, she’s set to appear in the “Exorcist” movie for Universal and Blumhouse-Atomic Monster.

Scarlett visited Colbert and took The Colbert Questionert.

Scarlett stars in this year’s Super Bowl commercial for Ritz alongside Jon Hamm and Bowen Yang.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER – Mike Flanagan, who previously tackled Stephen King adaptations ‘Gerald’s Game’ and ‘Doctor Sleep,’ is writing and will direct the feature film.
Scarlett Johansson will star in Mike Flanagan’s “fresh, bold” take on The Exorcist.

Blumhouse and Universal are behind the latest attempt to revive the horror franchise, which follows the companies’ ill-fated effort to launch a franchise with 2023’s The Exorcist: Believer.

Flanagan wrote the script and is directing and producing the new feature that is not a remake nor a sequel but set in the Exorcist “universe,” whatever that entails.

The original Exorcist, based on the novel by William Peter Blatty and directed by William Friedkin, focused on the demonic possession of a young girl and the priests that try to save her. The film was nominated for 10 Oscars. The various follow-ups mostly featured stories centered on the girl (now grown-up), the back stories of the priests or other demonic cases detectives from the first movie investigated.

“The Exorcist is one of the reasons I became a filmmaker, and it is an honor to have the chance to try something fresh, bold and terrifying within its universe,” is how Flanagan described the project when his involvement was announced in May 2024.

At the time, David Robinson, chairman and CEO of Exorcist rights holder Morgan Creek, said, “I think his vision for this franchise is going to stun audiences worldwide.”

Details on the take are being kept strapped to the bed.

Flanagan, who is known for directing Stephen King adaptations such as Doctor Sleep and Gerald’s Game as well as creating TV shows such as Midnight Mass and The Haunting of Hill House, is producing via his Red Room Pictures banner. David Robinson is producing for Morgan Creek Entertainment while Jason Blum and Ryan Turek serve as producer and executive producer respectively for Blumhouse.

Johansson last starred in Universal’s Jurassic World: Rebirth, which grossed over $868 million worldwide and proved that the studio’s long-standing dino movie series still had the chomps when it came to attracting audiences.