The first images of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret has been unveiled. Based on Judy Blume’s widely celebrated and banned 1970 novel of the same name, the adaptation will be written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig, a lifelong fan of Blume. Previously, Craig had made The Edge of Seventeen, starring Hailee Steinfeld, which was a factor in finally getting the book turned into a movie.

The adaptation will star Abby Ryder Forston as Margaret Simon, a sixth-grader struggling with religion in her interfaith family on top of other adolescent worries. Kathy Bates will play Sylvia, Margaret’s grandmother, while Benny Safdie and Rachel McAdams will play Herb and Barbara, Margaret’s parents.

“[Blume] was very nervous that someone would turn the film into something very glossy and pretty, where all the edges were sanded off. When I sat down with her, she had just seen my first film, The Edge of Seventeen, and she expressed that that made her feel confident that I was going to embrace all the flaws and nuances. That gave her confidence that the film would have the same honesty that she is so known for.”

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Despite being made over fifty years after the novel was written, the film adaptation will not take place in the modern day. Instead, it will retain the novel’s ’70s setting. In a discussion with Entertainment Weekly, Craig explained that there was a specific reason as to why that was. It was to broaden the already universal themes within the story.

“It’s about this kid who’s trying to figure out if there’s something greater beyond us. It’s making sure that she’s going to be okay in this time when she feels so alone and uncertain. There’s something about these two things that you would never think would go together — a girl who’s praying for boobs and then asking, ‘Does God exist? And do I believe it? And what do I believe?’ She’s asking life’s biggest questions inside this coming-of-age journey.”

The brand-new images from Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, from Lionsgate can be found below.

“While certain details have changed over the years, the experience of growing up is really universal. It’s the same across the decades. There’s something about an 11-year-old or 12-year-old girl today, watching a girl in 1970 go through the exact same experience that she’s going through today. It feels so comforting to know that you’re part of a long lineage. It takes that ‘you’re not alone’ feeling and multiplies it exponentially. Because everyone every year before you has gone through this, and [they will] every year after.”

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Safdie and Bates Discuss Working on the Film

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Though Safdie was familiar with Blume’s Fudge series, having read it to his own children, the same could not be said of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. In this case, he didn’t pick up the book until he was offered the role. As soon as he read it, however, he thought it was one of the most incredible books he had ever read. “Even though it was written so long ago, it still seemed so “real.”

Like the character he’s playing in the movie, Safdie is Jewish, a husband, and a father. Usually, he doesn’t play roles that are so close to his own life. The most difficult parts of the role Safdie had to film dealt with the story’s themes of antisemitism. Margaret gets caught between her mother’s intolerant family and her father’s more welcoming one.

While working on the film, Safdie also had the opportunity to bond with Bates over working with Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems and The Waterboy, respectively. He also shared with her the time his father showed him Misery when he was only eight years old. “So inappropriate,” Safdie said while laughing. Furthermore, according to Craig, audiences will see a new side of Bates in the movie.

“It’s something that you feel every once in a while, but how do you make it affect you and make it feel real? That was something that was hard, to actually get in and try and portray that. Buried amongst all of the story is this idea of family and sacrifice. That moment of having to hold back and be open-minded against your own heart was tough.”

“You see Kathy in a character that you have never seen her in before. She is so glamorous and vibrant, and she’s just juicy. She’s so funny and the grandma that everybody wants,” said Craig.

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret is scheduled for release on April 28, 2023.