Jessica Pressler: Magazine Journalism's Hollywood Pipeline
Jessica Pressler, a contributing editor at New York Magazine, wrote two feature stories that became major Hollywood adaptations: the 2019 theatrical film Hustlers and the 2022 Netflix series Inventing Anna. Her career is a clear example of how one magazine byline can turn into a repeatable Hollywood option pipeline, the same dynamic reshaping entertainment and media coverage more broadly.
What articles did Pressler write that became hit adaptations?
Jessica Pressler wrote two New York Magazine features that Hollywood optioned and adapted: "The Hustlers at Scores" and "Maybe She Had So Much Money She Just Lost Track of It." Both stories drew significant attention on publication before being optioned for screen adaptations.
What became the movie Hustlers?
Pressler's December 2015 New York Magazine feature, "The Hustlers at Scores," became the basis for the 2019 film Hustlers. The story profiled former strip club employees who drugged and overcharged their Wall Street clients. STX Entertainment produced the film, directed by Lorene Scafaria and starring Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu, Keke Palmer, Julia Stiles, Lili Reinhart, Cardi B, and Lizzo.
Hustlers premiered September 7, 2019, at the Toronto International Film Festival, then opened in U.S. theaters on September 13, 2019. Per Box Office Mojo and The Numbers, Hustlers opened to $33.2 million from 3,250 theaters and finished its theatrical run with more than $150 million worldwide against a production budget of roughly $20 million. The American Society of Magazine Editors had already nominated "The Hustlers at Scores" for a 2016 National Magazine Award in the Feature Writing category, per HuffPost's report on that year's nominees.
What became Inventing Anna?
Pressler's May 2018 New York Magazine feature, "Maybe She Had So Much Money She Just Lost Track of It," became the 2022 Netflix limited series Inventing Anna. The article told the story of Anna Sorokin, known as Anna Delvey, a Russian-German con artist who posed as a wealthy heiress in Manhattan. Shonda Rhimes adapted the piece into a nine-episode series starring Julia Garner that premiered February 11, 2022. Per Wikipedia's production entry for the series, Inventing Anna accumulated 511.92 million hours viewed in its first 28 days, among the most-watched English-language series Netflix had released at the time.
How does the magazine-to-streaming pipeline work?
The pipeline follows a repeatable sequence. A magazine publishes a long-form, character-driven feature with a built-in narrative arc. A studio or streamer options the piece. A showrunner develops it into a limited series or film, and the release is timed to a peak attention cycle.
Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV+, and Showtime have each used this model for a true-crime or con-artist story since Hustlers and Inventing Anna premiered, including The Dropout on Hulu, based on ABC News and podcast reporting on Theranos, WeCrashed on Apple TV+, based on the Wondery podcast on WeWork, and Super Pumped on Showtime, based on Mike Isaac's New York Times reporting on Uber. The same pattern now drives a meaningful share of entertainment marketing and press strategy around limited-series launches.
Why did Pressler's bylines become a Hollywood asset?
Pressler's two optioned pieces show that a magazine writer's reporting can carry value beyond the original publication: option fees, producer credits, and a track record studios treat as a signal of adaptable material. Pressler is credited as a producer on Inventing Anna, and she separately sold Simon & Schuster a nonfiction book on the Sorokin case, titled Bad Influence, which had not been published as of 2026. The pattern has extended to other narrative nonfiction writers whose bylines now function as a kind of pre-vetting for studios searching for true-story material, a dynamic that intersects with how stories first break and spread on social media before a studio ever options them.
Jessica Pressler is a contributing editor at New York Magazine whose reporting became the basis for the 2019 film Hustlers and the 2022 Netflix series Inventing Anna.
What article became the movie Hustlers?
"The Hustlers at Scores," Pressler's December 2015 New York Magazine feature about strip club employees who overcharged Wall Street clients, became the 2019 STX Entertainment film Hustlers. It was also nominated for a 2016 National Magazine Award.
What article became Inventing Anna?
"Maybe She Had So Much Money She Just Lost Track of It," Pressler's May 2018 feature on con artist Anna Sorokin, became the 2022 Netflix limited series Inventing Anna, created by Shonda Rhimes.
How much did Hustlers make at the box office?
Hustlers opened to $33.2 million and finished its theatrical run with more than $150 million worldwide, against a production budget of roughly $20 million, per Box Office Mojo and The Numbers.
How many hours was Inventing Anna watched on Netflix?
Inventing Anna accumulated 511.92 million hours viewed in its first 28 days on Netflix, among the platform's most-watched English-language series at the time of its February 2022 release.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team is the staff byline for news, analysis and features on communications, reputation, AI visibility and digital discovery. Everything-PR has published since 2009. AI tools assist with research and drafting, and every article is reviewed by a human editor before publication. Coverage follows the Editorial Policy, and substantive corrections are noted on the article under the Corrections Policy.
