'Kissing Booth' Director Marcello to Helm 'Son of the Mob'
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- Red Sage Studios, the YA-focused company founded by former Amazon MGM Studios International head James Farrell, and Sun Distribution (Telefilms Group) are adapting Gordon Korman's YA novel, in which teenage son of a mob boss Vince falls for the daughter of the FBI agent investigating his family.
- Vince Marcello, director of Netflix's Kissing Booth trilogy starring Joey King, is set to direct and produce from a script co-written with Jay Arnold, who collaborated with Marcello on the two Kissing Booth sequels.
- Production is slated for Canada with Vancouver-based Brightlight Pictures.
- Marcello's prior Kissing Booth films were big for Netflix before the streamer started biannual viewership reporting — the first set a rewatch rate record with nearly 50% of viewers watching more than once, the sequel generated 209.2M viewing hours in its first 28 days, and the third notched 451M viewing minutes in its first week, per Nielsen.
- The Kissing Booth viewership data matters because Netflix is ending biannual viewership reporting entirely, shifting to annual reports beginning Q1 2027 — meaning future Marcello projects on the streamer won't get comparable disclosure.
- The Son of the Mob announcement follows Red Sage and Sun Distribution partnering on Jessica Cunsolo's YA bestseller She's with Me, to be directed by Culpa Mía's Domingo González; Red Sage's broader slate also includes The Bridge Kingdom and Let's Play.
Why it matters: Red Sage Studios is pairing Vince Marcello — whose Netflix Kissing Booth trilogy pulled 209.2M+ viewing hours per Nielsen — with another fish-out-of-water YA rom-com, betting his track record translates as the company builds out a multi-title slate including She's with Me, The Bridge Kingdom and Let's Play.
