Entertainment TV Hulu Picks Up Conversations with Friends Based on Novel from Normal People Author Conversations with Friends follows two college students as they forge a sexually charged relationship with a married couple By Robyn Merrett Published on June 25, 2020 08:45 PM Share Tweet Pin Email Conversations with Friends. Photo: amazon Following the success of Hulu's Normal People — based on the book by Sally Rooney — the streaming platform has announced that it has picked up the author's critically acclaimed debut novel Conversations with Friends. The book, published in 2017, follows two female college students as they unexpectedly strike up a sexually charged relationship with an older married couple in Dublin. The connection results in a complicated pair of love triangles that upends all their lives. Hulu announced that Conversations with Friends will be a 12-episode, half-hour drama. "Sally Rooney perfectly and beautifully captures the complicated dynamics of relationships in her stories," Hulu's VP of Content Beatrice Springborn said in a statement. "After bringing that to life in Normal People to an overwhelmingly positive response, we are honored to do the same with Conversations with Friends. We are excited to continue our creative partnership with Sally, Element Pictures, Lenny and the BBC, which has been a dream collaboration," Springborn added. Meet the Stars of Hulu's Irresistibly Steamy Normal People, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal Sally Rooney. David Levenson/Getty Images Executive producer Ed Guiney also expressed his excitement in a statement: "We loved working with Hulu on Normal People — they are an inspiring and very talented team and all of us at Element are delighted to be partnering with them again, alongside our friends at BBC, on the screen adaptation of Sally Rooney's incredible first novel, Conversations with Friends." Lenny Abrahamson, the director of Normal People, will be the lead director of the new series alongside Alice Birch, who will serve as lead writer. Normal People, which first premiered on Hulu in April, follows Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell (Paul Mescal) as they weave in and out of each other's romantics lives while living in the same small town in Ireland. The show ranks as one of Hulu's most talked about originals on social media in 2020, Hulu said. Earlier this month, Abrahamson, Guiney and intimacy coach Ita O'Brien opened up to PEOPLE about the show's success, crediting it to Edgar-Jones and Mescal's chemistry. Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones in Normal People. Enda Bowe/Hulu "This show stands and falls on the believability of that relationship," director/executive producer Abrahamson explained. "When I put Daisy and Paul together, that was the crucial test. That’s where that chemistry was so apparent, you could see it. For two young actors who haven’t had huge amount of experience, it’s a challenging show to shoot. They also happen to be exquisitely talented." Connell's Chain from Normal People Is Up for Auction Thanks to Actor Paul Mescal O'Brien said she loved the way Edgar-Jones would make the most out of the smaller moments. "Daisy, she was fantastic," O'Brien said. "She could just know that the slightest glance would read [on camera] and that subtleness was just beautiful." Added executive producer Guiney: "In an incredibly intimate way, you get a sense of how they’re thinking and what they’re feeling about each other."