Better Than the Movies director gives fans an exciting filming update on the Netflix rom-com

As book-to-screen adaptations slowly dominate, plenty of news is coming out about the films we’re excited for. And today, we have a fun update from Better Than The Movies director Julia Hart.

Filming has officially begun for the highly anticipated adaptation, and Hart went to Instagram to share a little snippet of life on set, captioning it simply as “so far so good,” while tagging the author of the novel series, Lynn Painter.

Painter also took to her Instagram and shared similar pictures of the set, saying that after spending a few days on set, she was so excited about where the movie was going and had nothing but praise for the director and how she was bringing the book to life.

Better Than The Movies has been steadily taking shape at Netflix. Back at the beginning of August, the leads were officially cast, followed by a slew of casting announcements for other side characters as well. Beatrice Kitsos and David Iacono will star as the main characters in the film, along with Judy Greer, Deacon Phillippe, Nicole Bruner, Ora Duplass, Claire Coffee, Luke Kirby, and Veronica Garrubbo.

It's great to hear filming is going so well. Filming is reportedly going to continue until the very end of October — for a teen rom-com, yeah, that lines up.

What is Better Than The Movies about?

Better Than The Movies, for those who need a refresher, is a popular teen rom-com about a high school senior who loves classic rom-coms and is determined to get the attention of a former crush who moves back into town. Teaming up with her bickering neighbor, they use a mix of romance tropes from popular rom-coms to succeed, but it leads to unexpected feelings blossoming between them and complications.

It’s one of those films in an ever-evolving rotation of Netflix adaptations. I mean, even one of the best Netflix films in 2026 was a book adaptation, Remarkably Bright Creatures. And that actually ended up becoming a Primetime Emmy winner.

Better Than The Movies is just another addition to that long list. But if it’s going to be any film, I’m not surprised it’s this. According to Tudum, the book has spent over 44 weeks on the New York Times Bestselling list, specifically in the YA paperback list. It’s been a huge hit and has spawned a sequel, Nothing Like the Movies, plus several other short novellas and stories set in the same world.

The book also boasts an impressive rating on Goodreads. With 908,000+ ratings and 129,000+ reviews, Better Than The Movies has an overall rating of 4.25 — and for that many responses, that is honestly phenomenal. I can only imagine what the movie will be like, given how beloved the book is.

That said, if this film isn’t up your alley, plenty of other big rom-com adaptations are coming as well. Production on the long-awaited adaptation of This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune began in early August 2026, and it's another popular rom-com novel fans would love.

A few BookTok-famous novels are also coming to Netflix, including Ali Hazelwood’s Deep End, which will become a film for the platform. There’s also the long-awaited The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, if that ever happens in this lifetime. But that movie has been stuck in development hell for some time. 

Even so, all this news about Better Than The Movies should get book fans excited. If production and all else go well, that means that we could have a decent release timeline, maybe sometime in early 2027. It feels like the perfect spring movie.

Until then, all we can do is live through the updates and hope that we get something real soon. For now, you can check out all the books on Amazon.

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