The filmmakers behind one of Netflix’s most successful teen franchises are returning to the young adult romance arena. Vince Marcello and Jay Arnold, the creative team that launched The Kissing Booth, have officially signed on to adapt Gordon Korman’s hit 2002 novel Son of the Mob into a feature film.
The project is a co-production between Sun Distribution and Red Sage Studios, a newly formed production banner launched earlier this year by former Amazon MGM Studios executive James Farrell.
Son of the Mob centers on 17-year-old Vince Luca. He wants nothing more than a standard high school experience, but his father operates a powerful crime syndicate. Things get infinitely more complicated when Vince falls for Kendra, whose dad happens to be the very FBI agent actively trying to lock up the Luca family.
Red Sage Studios greenlit the adaptation as part of a highly specific corporate strategy. Farrell left his VP of International post at Amazon to build a studio entirely focused on the 17-to-22-year-old demographic. Legacy studios have largely abandoned mid-budget teen films in favor of superhero tentpoles, leaving a clear gap in the market.
The studio’s rapidly expanding slate reflects that pivot. Alongside the new Gordon Korman project, Red Sage is actively developing feature adaptations of the Wattpad sensation She’s With Me and the WEBTOON comic Let’s Play.
Getting the Kissing Booth creators attached is a calculated move to capture that forgotten audience, according to an exclusive report confirming the deal. Production timelines and casting decisions for Vince and Kendra have not yet been announced.