With the children’s television landscape evolving from the bright sitcom-style of Nickelodeon and Disney Channel shows, a veteran director of the genre is plotting his own course, while still working in the children’s entertainment space.
Mike Caron, who has directed several dozen episodes of Henry Danger, Danger Force and Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder, has optioned Sara Coven’s award-winning middle-grade novel The One We Left Behind.
Sean Lavery, who was a writer on comedies Cougar Town and Crossing Swords, has been set to pen the adaptation, which is being developed as a feature.
Caron is develop the adaptation through Mike Caron Productions, the production company he launched in 2022 to develop original concepts and acquire intellectual property. The project has resonance for Caron, who had come across the book and had long been interested in exploring the subject of bullying in a deeper, feature-length format. After his new focus and company, he returned to the material with a plan.
“Taking an independently published, award-winning book and bringing it to the screen is the exact kind of storytelling I want to champion,” Caraon said in a statement. “There’s an incredible creative freedom in finding brilliant material outside the traditional pathways and Sara’s novel has that rare, raw authenticity.”
Set in the ‘90s, The One We Left Behind follows a group of seventh graders as they grapple with friendship, bullying and the consequences of the choices they make. At its center is 13-year-old Evan, whose carefully cultivated reputation as one of the “cool kids” is challenged when he is assigned to spend lunch with William, a new student with severe food allergies who has become the target of his classmates’ ridicule. What begins as resentment gradually develops into an unexpected friendship, forcing Evan to confront the pressures of fitting in and the increasingly serious bullying directed at someone he has come to care about.
Coven wrote the novel as a passion project inspired by effects she witnessed as her nephews struggled with severe food allergies. The book made an impact. It was one of only six finalists nationwide in Kirkus’ inaugural Indie Awards for the Children’s Literature category, representing the highest achievement among independently published books. And it also a first place award for the audiobook at BookFest.
Caron’s career has been closely associated with Nickelodeon and some of the most successful children’s television series of the past two decades. On top of directing shows, he also served as an assistant director on series ranging from Josh & Drake, Zoey 101, iCarly, and Victorious, among others. The One We Left Behind represents a deliberate expansion into a broader family audience and feature filmmaking. Caron is currently in pre-production on the feature Invader, starring Amy Acker, Todd Stashwick and Tommy Walker.
For Lavery, the project has a personal connection as his son has a disability. It’s something he has tapped into before with his writing, with his 2019 pilot Me & You being selected for the inaugural Black List Disability List, recognizing the ten best scripts centered on disability or featuring a disabled lead character.
“Coming-of-age stories made me a writer, but watching my disabled son come of age gave me a whole new prism of experiences.” Lavery continues, “Sara’s novel captures the idea that hyper-specificity breeds universality, which is my storytelling approach, and I’m excited to add an extra dimension to the world that Sara has created.”
Caron is represented by Kaplan Stahler Agency. Lavery is represented by Haven Entertainment.