Jenna Bush Hager and Marissa Jo Cerar team up for 'Drowning in Paper Flowers'

Marissa Jo Cerar is adapting 'Drowning in Paper Flowers' for TV with Jenna Bush Hager and Universal Global Television

Marissa Jo Cerar is developing a television adaptation of E.L. Westbury’s domestic thriller Drowning in Paper Flowers, with Jenna Bush Hager and Universal Global Television attached to the project.

Cerar, best known for creating and showrunning Women of the Movement and adapting Black Cake for Hulu, is developing the series alongside Bush Hager and Ben Spector of Thousand Voices. Universal Global Television is also involved in the adaptation.

The recently re-released novel follows Ruby Powell, a wealthy and seemingly perfect housewife living in Dallas. Beneath her polished exterior, Ruby is struggling with an unhappy marriage, feelings of inadequacy as a mother and recurring nightmares. Her teenage daughter resents her, while her young son deals with trauma following a kidnapping.

Ruby’s carefully constructed life begins to unravel when an affair, a dead body and a long-held secret force her to question what is real and what is not.

Cerar said she was excited to bring the story to television, describing the project as a female-focused thriller with a deeply personal connection for her.

Bush Hager also praised the novel’s Texas setting and its unexpected twists, noting that she and Spector had wanted to collaborate with Cerar since her adaptation of Black Cake.

Drowning in Paper Flowers was originally self-published in December 2024 before attracting significant attention and eventually selling to Atria Books in a seven-figure North American deal. International rights have also been sold, with translation rights acquired in six languages.

The book was re-released by Atria and Orion on Aug. 11. No network or streaming premiere date has been announced for the television adaptation.