Jennifer Government - Adaptations

Adaptations

To help promote the novel, Barry created a spin-off browser-based game entitled Jennifer Government: NationStates, in which players can operate their own countries by making decisions that have an impact on the economy, society and culture of their people. The game is very loosely based on the novel, containing none of the storyline - the player makes choices which are inspired by the setting of the Jennifer Government novel. There are no graphics in the game outside of national flags (both real world and user-generated).

In 2001, the film rights were optioned to Section 8, a production company owned by Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney. In 2005, Louis Mellis and Dave Scinto, writers of Sexy Beast, were chosen by Clooney and Soderbergh to write the screenplay. Barry himself has said his primary choice for the role would be Nicole Kidman.

In 2006 Max Barry reported in his blog that because of the closure of Section 8 the film rights to Jennifer Government had been returned to him, though he remained hopeful that Clooney's next studio project Smoke House Productions would look into optioning the rights again.