Michelle Trachtenberg was embarking on a new path as a screenwriter before her death at the age of 39.

The actress was on the verge of closing a deal on a screenplay she’d written based on the book Toy Monster: The Big, Bad World of Mattel, the film’s director and producer Casey Tebo told TMZ on Monday, March 3.

Casey, 50, told the outlet that it was one of the “best” screenplays he’d ever read and that he and Michelle were close to closing a deal with a studio prior to her death on February 26.

Toy Monster, written by author Jerry Oppenheimer, was originally published in 2009. The exposé focused on Mattel’s corporate culture and how the brand behind Barbie and Hot Wheels became dominant in the brutal toy business.

Casey directed the 2021 film Black Friday and 2018’s portrait Steven Tyler: Out on a Limb, about the legendary Aerosmith frontman. He told TMZ that he and Michelle had a breakthrough in January when a “very successful finance studio” expressed their interest in the screenplay. The project is now on hold following Michelle’s death, but Casey is determined to make the movie in the Gossip Girl star’s memory.

Michelle was found unresponsive inside her New York City apartment by her mother, Lana Trachtenberg. She called 911 and EMS workers pronounced the Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum dead at the scene.

Sources confirmed to multiple outlets that Michelle underwent liver transplant surgery prior to her death. An insider told the New York Post that her body may have rejected the organ.

The New York Police Department said in a statement obtained by In Touch on February 26, that “criminality” was “not suspected” in Michelle’s death.

The Ice Princess star’s cause and manner of death were both officially listed as “undetermined,” the New York Medical Examiner’s office confirmed to In Touch on February 27.

A source told the New York Post that the cause of death was listed in the way it was after Michelle’s family reportedly objected to an autopsy. Only an external examination of the body could be completed, while the medical examiner’s office was “obligated to honor the family’s request due to the state’s public health law,” according to the insider.

Michelle hadn’t appeared in a TV series or film since a two-episode guest appearance in 2022’s Gossip Girl reboot. She hadn’t attended a major red carpet event since 2020’s 28th Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards party.

The Inspector Gadget star made a rare public outing to designer Christian Siriano‘s 15-year anniversary celebration in Los Angeles in 2023.

Some fans became concerned about Michelle in early 2024, after she appeared slightly pale and gaunt in several selfies.

“Michelle u look sick. R u ok?” one fan asked about her well-being in the comments of a January 2024 photo. The star hit back, “Explain to me how I look sick. Did you lose a calendar and not realize I’m not 14. I’m 38. How sad for you to leave such a comment.”

Several of Michelle’s famous costars paid tribute to the actress after her death.

“Michelle, listen to me. Listen. I love you. I will always love you. The hardest thing in this world, is to live in it. I will be brave. I will live … for you,’” Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar captioned the February 27 post featuring photos of the duo.

“You knew when she entered a room because the vibration changed. Everything she did, she did 200%,” actress Blake Lively later wrote about her Gossip Girl costar.