It wasn’t the first thing that sprung to mind, but I think like many of us, I wanted to see if I could do something more than I’d done. I was also at that point kind of known as the “Family Comedy Director,” not the period piece drama auteur. But at that time, the rights were unavailable because someone else was developing it as a movie.

I read this book when it first came out, as many of us did - I adored it and it moved me deeply. It’s a departure that I’ve waited a long time to try. But would you say this is a departure for you? I know you’re in pre-production for Deadpool 3 right now, and you’ve been so successful in so many genres. A lot of people know you from Night at the Museum, Stranger Things, and The Adam Project. Katie Couric: Shawn, it’s safe to say you’ve never tackled something quite like this before. They also delve into how Loberti used her own vision impairment to enrich the role and why even massive superstars like Mark Ruffalo and Hugh Laurie felt nervous to be on set. Katie recently caught up with Levy - who was joined by co-stars Aria Mia Loberti and Louis Hofmann - during a special screening of the series to ask what it takes to bring such a massive and beloved project to life. Now, director Shawn Levy (of Stranger Things fame) has taken on the challenge of adapting this epic story into a Netflix television series. But the proposed film adaptation fell through, and the story slipped out of our minds for a while. The buzz was pervasive, so it seemed logical that a movie version would magically premiere within days.

No matter how we got there, we found ourselves entranced by the heart-breaking experience of life during World War II. Sure, the novel won a Pulitzer Prize, but most of us were introduced to the tale via book clubs or vetted endorsements. Set in 1940s Paris, rural Germany, and the wartorn towns in between, the heartfelt story follows a blind girl fleeing from Nazis and a German orphan who’s recruited to fight the resistance. In 2017, everyone was reading Anthony Doerr’s novel All the Light We Cannot See.

Book the light we cannot see