Patti Smith's Just Kids Is Being Developed Into a Series for Showtime

Just Kids, Patti Smith’s National Book Award-winning memoir about her relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe, is being developed into a limited series for Showtime.

“A limited series on Showtime will allow us to explore the characters more deeply, enabling us to develop stories beyond the book and allow a measure of unorthodox presentation,” says Smith. “The medium of a television limited series offers narrative freedom and a chance to expand upon the themes of the book.”

For the series, Smith will collaborate with John Logan, creator of Penny Dreadful. According to The Hollywood Reporter:

Just Kids will be co-written and produced by Smith and produced with Logan’s Desert Wolf Productions banner. An episode count has not yet been determined.

As Showtime president David Nevins told the audience at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour:

“Just Kids is one of my favorite memoirs of all time. Not only is it a fascinating portrait of artists coming of age, but it’s also an inspiring story of friendship, love and endurance. I’m so thrilled that Patti Smith will bring her unique voice to writing the scripts along with the gifted John Logan, who has been doing such a phenomenal job with Penny Dreadful for us.”

Asked about casting, Smith—an open and ardent fan of pop culture—said that she would like to see Kristen Stewart play her.

Via Vulture:

“I remember the very first time I saw Kristen Stewart and Rob Pattinson together, when they were younger, and I thought, Those two kids could have easily played us when they were first starting,” she says. “Kristen has a very special quality. She’s not conventionally beautiful, but very charismatic.”

But, she says, it would be preferable to cast a pair of unknowns:

“Robert and I were very young. We were 20. We were unknowns, and I think it should be unknowns in the film, and young.”