“She really did write the best script!”— Michelle Trachtenberg’s boyfriend Jay Cohen and producing partner to film final screenplay

Michelle Trachtenberg's boyfriend, Jay Cohen, as well as her producing partner, Casey Tebo, are on a mission to turn the last script she wrote before her demise into a screenplay, the latter told The Post.

The filmmaker, renowned for directing the 2021 film Black Friday, took to X to reveal that the Gossip Girl alum had penned one of the greatest screenplays, titled Toy Monster, he'd ever read. He echoed the sentiments while speaking with The Post:

"This script jumps off the page; a dizzying tale of jealousy soaked in whiskey and clad in ’50s fashion,” Tebo exclusively told The Post. “I guarantee you, it gets made and people are gonna say, ‘Holy sh-t. She really did write the best script!'”

Michelle Trachtenberg's producing partner calls the industry out for not looking beyond her acting talents, says she had a lot of potential: Read more

In his tweet on X, Tebo said:

"Michelle Trachtenberg wrote one of the best screenplays I've ever read, based on the book TOY MONSTER - it's as good as Wolf of Wall Street. I'm doing everything I can to get this movie made, we just need to find the right director, and I promise we will get it made for her."

The New York Post has revealed that Toy Monster is an adaptation of Jerry Oppenheimer’s 2009 book of the same name. According to Tebo, he plans to make this movie in honor of Michelle Trachtenberg, even if it is "the last movie Jay and I ever make.”

“I would say that he will do whatever he needs to do to honor her and show the industry — that he has done so much for so many in — what she was truly capable of,” Tebo said of Cohen.

Speaking of Toy Monster, he said:

“When it gets made, my hope is that our industry will maybe take a second look at the thought that maybe what you know someone for isn’t all they’re good at.”

Speaking with People Magazine, he reflected on how passionate Michelle Trachtenberg was about this screenplay:

“I don't remember when, but my dear friend Jay Cohen (Michelle's boyfriend) sent me a script she had written called TOY MONSTER," he said in a statement to People Magazine. "The only scripts I remember staying with me like that in recent memory were two. HERE COMES THE FLOOD by Simon Kinberg and TOY MONSTER around 2019. Because they were the two best, by a landslide."

He also called out the industry for failing to see beyond Michelle Trachtenberg's acting prowess:

"One of the issues with our industry is they will recognize someone like Simon as a great writer, but they will always look at Michelle as Harriet the Spy or Georgina Sparks," he explained, adding that her script was a "sharp biting dramedy about a maniac toy executive set in the 1950s." He added, "The truth is - Michelle was an incredible writer. But no one expects her to write like that. It's about the struggle for credit, compensation and recognition for success. Something Hollywood knows nothing about I'm sure."

According to the outlet, the project was initially greenlit, but it fell through when an executive who was a part of the project "moved on" from the company, and "the project was left in limbo."

Nonetheless, Tebo says, "We’re putting the pieces together to get this film made for Michelle," adding that an "angel investor" got in touch with him just moments after he revealed his plans on X.

"Maybe Michelle is looking out for us," he adds. "I've never been a superstitious or spiritual person, but things like that are hard to deny.”

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Michelle Trachtenberg was found dead in her apartment in New York City on February 26. At the time of writing, her cause of death has yet to be determined.

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