Run-A-Muck, the recently launched, creator-led media company from Pamela Drucker Mann, Ilene Chaiken, and Jennifer Beals, is developing a film adaptation of Stag Dance by Torrey Peters, Deadline reported. The search for a writer and director is currently underway. Stag Dance is the title novella from Stag Dance: A Quartet, a collection that was named a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
The story "is set in an isolated illegal logging camp, where a winter dance ignites a volatile chain of obsession, jealousy, desire, and betrayal. At its center is Babe Bunyan, a towering, enigmatic axman whose search for identity and belonging drives the story toward an explosive conclusion," Deadline noted.
"Any novel that has the word 'Pulitzer' attached risks a staid adaptation--so I'm delighted that Run-A-Muck came with an opposite take: a blood-pumping, pulpy, thriller vision for the book--it reinvents the story in a way that makes me desperate to see what happens, truly magic considering how much time I've already spent with these characters," Peters said.
Chaiken, Run-A-Muck's co-founder and CCO, said, "Torrey has created a world that feels both mythic and deeply human, both intimate and epic, anchored by one of the most unforgettable characters I've ever encountered in fiction. Run-a-Muck is thrilled to be bringing this incredible story to the screen."