Run-A-Muck Moves Forward with Film Adaptation of Torrey Peters’ “Stag Dance”

Creator-led media company Run-A-Muck, founded by Pamela Drucker Mann, Ilene Chaiken, and Jennifer Beals, is developing a feature-length adaptation of Torrey Peters’ novella *Stag Dance*. The project is in the early stages, with a writer and director still being sought. Trevor Adley has been attached as producer. The story unfolds in an isolated illegal-logging camp where a winter dance sparks a volatile chain of obsession, jealousy, desire, and betrayal, centered on the enigmatic axman Babe Bunyan.

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*Stag Dance* appears in *Stag Dance: A Quartet*, a collection published by Penguin Random House that was named a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Peters previously earned the PEN/Hemingway Award for *Detransition, Baby* and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. The rights to a feature adaptation were first secured by Tommy Dorfman’s Good Girl Productions in 2025.

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• Torrey Peters – author of the novella, represented by UTA, Myman Greenspan Fox, and Neon Literary.

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• Ilene Chaiken – co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Run-A-Muck, overseeing the adaptation.

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• Pamela Drucker Mann – co-founder of Run-A-Muck.

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• Jennifer Beals – co-founder of Run-A-Muck.

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Peters expressed enthusiasm for Run-A-Muck’s “opposite take” that promises a “blood-pumping, pulpy, thriller vision,” emphasizing that the adaptation will reinvent the story rather than produce a staid version. Chaiken highlighted the novella’s blend of mythic and human elements, calling the central character one of the most unforgettable she has encountered in fiction and noting the company’s excitement to bring the world to the screen.

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• “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.” — Torrey Peters, author

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• “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.” — Chief Creative Officer Chaiken, co-founder and chief

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