"Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" will follow the plot of the beloved Blume book, telling the story of 11-year-old Margaret Simon, who has a Christian mother and a Jewish father, but no particular religion of her own. Upon its release in 1970, the book became a classic for its honest and heartwarming portrayal of Margaret's curiosity about spirituality, puberty, family, and growing up.
One difference between the book and movie, though, is while the novel was set in the '70s, the movie will be less rooted in a time period. "While certain details have changed over the years, the experience of growing up is really universal," Fremon Craig told Entertainment Weekly. "It's the same across the decades. There's something about an 11-year-old or 12-year-old girl today, watching a girl in 1970 go through the exact same experience that she's going through today. It feels so comforting to know that you're part of a long lineage. It takes that 'you're not alone' feeling and multiplies it exponentially. Because everyone every year before you has gone through this, and [they will] every year after."