Warner Bros. Develops New Take on You've Got Mail

Warner Bros. is developing a new version of You've Got Mail, the 1998 romantic comedy, with Jason Orley attached to direct, Deadline reported on 10 November 2026. "Attached" is industry shorthand for a director who has agreed to take on a project that is still being put together.

Orley is also writing the current draft of the script. That draft is based on a screenplay by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont. A draft is the working version of a screenplay, and it is usually revised several times before cameras roll.

Neal Moritz and Tania Landau are producing the project through Original Film. Producers oversee the budget, the hiring and the overall making of a film, and they often stay with a title from its first draft to its release.

The new version returns to a film that did well for Warner Bros. the first time round. The original was released by the studio in December 1998 and grossed more than $250 million worldwide, according to Deadline. Nora Ephron directed it, and Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks starred.

The story has an older root. The 1998 film was based on Miklós László's play Parfumerie, and on its film adaptation, The Shop Around the Corner. Both tell of two people who work together and do not know that they are already writing to each other, a setup the new project keeps as its starting point.

Orley's earlier films include I Want You Back and Big Time Adolescence. His name is now attached to a title with a long run in cinemas and on home video, which is a common route for studios looking at known titles.

Studios often return to familiar films because they already have a title that audiences recognise. Warner Bros. owns the rights to the 1998 film, which lets it decide whether and how a new version goes ahead. Whether this project reaches cinemas, and when, has not been decided.