Hulu is taking a swing on a wealthy-family drama at a moment when the producers and the writer attached both have fresh streaming wins to point to. The streamer is developing These Summer Storms, an adaptation of Sarah MacLean’s 2025 novel, through 20th Television.
The story follows Alice Storm, who has been shut out from her family’s private island off the Rhode Island coast for five years. Her father’s sudden death pulls her back into the money, power and rules she left behind.
What’s in the package
Erin and Sara Foster are executive producing via their Fatigue Sisters label under an overall deal at 20th Television. Melanie Marnich, who wrote and showran Peacock’s Apples Never Fall, is attached to write and showrun. Oly Obst of 3 Arts, Montana McBirney and MacLean are also executive producing.
- Platform: Hulu.
- Studio: 20th Television.
- Producing label: Fatigue Sisters.
- Writer/showrunner: Melanie Marnich.
- Status: Development, not yet ordered to series.
Why the timing is notable
The package lands with two chart points behind it. The third season of the Fosters’ Nobody Wants This launched Thursday and shot to #1 on Netflix’s daily US rankings. Marnich’s Apples Never Fall had earlier held the #1 spot on Peacock for two weeks and reached Nielsen’s weekly Top 10 for streaming originals.
Marnich’s track record extends beyond one title. She also executive produced the FX limited series A Murder at the End of the World, after adapting Liane Moriarty’s Apples Never Fall for Peacock. For Hulu, that is a showrunner who has repeatedly moved between bestselling source material and limited-series execution.
That matters for Hulu. Call it an adaptation flywheel: a bestseller provides built-in awareness, a showrunner with a Nielsen Top 10 credit provides execution proof, and producers with a same-week #1 provide momentum. MacLean’s books have been translated into more than thirty languages, which also signals international headroom. Together, those elements lower the perceived risk of a book-to-series order.
What to watch next
This is a development deal, not a formal series commitment. The signals that matter from here are whether Hulu orders a pilot or straight-to-series, who is cast as Alice Storm, and how the marketing frames the book’s existing audience.
MacLean said she is eager for audiences to see what she called “the delicious chaos of the Storm family” in a new medium. For Hulu, the next move is turning a well-timed package into a greenlight.
Source: Deadline
