The road from novel or memoir to successful production begins with savvy surveying of the literary scene. BookBookBook Written By Isaac Feldberg ollywood’s streaming era has created a boom for content, as networks, studios and digital platforms hustle to find to new stories to bolster their online libraries. Quite often, the toto Hanswer sits on bookshelves of actual libraries, and requires the muscle of producers who can envision the potential of the written words. The market for books to be adapted into films, series, or prestige miniseries is thriving, but rarely is there a straightforward path from the bookshelf to the box office or the on-demand hub. Produced By ScreenScreenScreen takes a closer look, presenting three case studies in adaptation that speak to the unique and ever-evolving roles a producer can play in bringing a book to the screen. Each of these stories­—a heartwarming teen Christmas tale; an unsettling exploration of artistry and marriage by one of the greatest living authors; and a life-affirming memoir—took a different route, but all of them relied on the effort and ingenuity of their producers to overcome obstacles along the way.

PRODUCED BY 55

SHOW MYTHIC QUEST FYC CLIENT APPLE PUB PGA NOTES: • 300 DPI and Maximum ink BLEED: 9" x 11.125" TRIM: 8.75" x 10.875" LIVE: 8.25" x 10.375" density: 300 total 310.310.8679 V1 SIZE FULL PG BLD ISSUE 06.15.21 JOB #: BOOK TO SCREEN

EX-MAS (AMAZON)(AMAZON)

not cowriters,” he adds. A division of AT ALLOY, BOOKS LIKE Warner Bros. Television Group since EX-MAS ARE BLOCKBUSTERS 2012, Alloy frequently partners with the IN WAITING. mega conglomerate’s branches to adapt properties, but it does business all around When it comes to adapting young- town—including with streamers, which can adult fiction for film and television, often move fastest to capture the attention Leslie Morgenstein has become an of younger, perennially online audiences. expert. The president and founder of Mogenstein and his team first met Alloy Entertainment has transformed with writing-directing duo Chris Hazzard the teen-savvy book publisher into an are warmed and sparks most certainly fly. and Michael Fontana after reading their ultraprofitable, industrially efficient Brian teamed up with Alloy on its script for comedy feature Drunk Bus and book-to-screen pipeline. New York Times best-selling Private presented them with a few potential Between feature adaptations like books, about teenagers at a prestigious projects. Selecting Ex-mas, the pair The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, academy. Alloy created a web series from came back to the table and developed a and TV franchises including Gossip Girl, those novels and once planned a feature pitch with Alloy. Though WarnerMedia The Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little film, which stalled in development. So partners ended up passing, Amazon Liars, Alloy has defined a generation of when Ex-mas landed on Morgenstein’s Studios snapped up the feature. teen entertainment over the past three desk, he added the title to a running list Alloy doesn’t exclusively operate in the decades. When it comes to the company’s of internally well-regarded properties YA space—one successful adult thriller biggest successes, they usually start with to be paired with screenwriters. A slim is Caroline Kepnes’ You, adapted into the a book Morgenstein and his team believe paperback nestled into holiday and YA popular Netflix series of the same name— has crossover appeal. romance genres, Ex-mas had a self-limiting but the company has shepherded nearly Many story concepts are hatched audience in book form, but Morgenstein a hundred YA best sellers to market. during internal brainstorming sessions, saw bigger potential in a film adaptation. “There’s a universality to coming-of-age then paired with novelists who write the “Christmas movies not only have stories,” says Morgenstein. “Even grown- books as Alloy sets the wheels in motion marketability in that window when they ups relate to stories about defining who for films or TV series. Others originate often release, but if you do them right, you are as a person. That’s a lot of what with authors. Alloy then assumes the there’s a timelessness to them where it these books are about.” editorial responsibilities of a traditional could become a classic, something people Ensuring projects find the right publisher, but also stays on to produce watch every year,” he explains. home is a priority for Morgenstein, no the on-screen adaptation. “Originally, the Morgenstein also thinks audiences matter how long it takes. “We’ve had business was very much book-focused: will be swept up in the will-they-won’t- projects that have gone from selling to How do we take books and adapt them they dynamic of Ex-mas. “You’re with being in production within a year, and into TV and film,” explains Morgenstein. someone you both love and hate, and then we’ve had projects that take 10 “Now, it’s much more hand-in-glove, you cannot get away from them,” he years,” he says. Being able to roll with where we’re developing properties explains. “I love that tension.” He sees the punches is an essential part of his that will have a life on multiple When Harry Met Sally as one north star business. “Sometimes you have your platforms.” Morgenstein has received for the project and will focus on casting strategy, the market speaks back to PGA’s Producers Mark for the feature leads with simmering chemistry. you, and it’s not always the answer you adaptations of Everything, Everything, With offices in New York and Los want,” adds Morgenstein. The Sun Is Also a Star and Work It. Angeles, Alloy’s day-to-day marks it as Case in point: You was developed at Consider Ex-mas, Kate Brian’s 2009 a hybrid of the film and book publishing Showtime and purchased by Lifetime, novel about two 8-year-old boys who industries. “We’re a little unusual in that, which aired its first season to limited embark on a mission to save Santa from in most cases, we’re on the ground floor success before a Netflix streaming debut climate change—forcing their older of development,” says Morgenstein. Alloy finally turned the series into a global siblings, who used to date, to set aside regularly seeks out in-demand creatives to sensation. “It’s not always consistent, and their differences and give chase. Hearts pair with its properties. “We’re producers, sometimes it’s a crooked path,” he says.

56 PRODUCED BY BOOK TO SCREEN

FATHERHOOD (NETFLIX)(NETFLIX)

daughter. Channing Tatum, who’d AT THE HEART OF FATHERHOOD starred in Dear John, was then IS A TRUE STORY OF TRAGEDY, approached to produce through PERSEVERANCE, AND HARD- his Free Association production WON TRIUMPH. company, as well as to potentially play Logelin in the adaptation. Dana Based on Matthew Logelin’s best-selling Stevens (City of Angels, Safe Haven) 2011 memoir Two Kisses for Maddy, penned the script. “It’s very sensitive Fatherhood stars Kevin Hart as Logelin, to take someone’s personal tragedy a first-time father struggling to raise his and take creative license with it,” says daughter after the unexpected death of Beaubaire, looking back on the project’s his wife one day after giving birth. The early stages. “We walked a line in a film debuts June 18 on Netflix, a decade wife passed, the author had to face the graceful way I’m really proud of.” after the book’s release, having survived harsh reality of his household losing half Many of Hollywood’s leading men its stop-and-start journey through its expected income. He agreed to meet circled the project over the years, but it Hollywood largely thanks to the tenacity with Hallmark and Lifetime, despite not of former Sony exec David Beaubaire, the being enamored with either company’s producer who never gave up on it. output. “In the back of my head, I was Beaubaire describes how “the listening to whatever my late wife tremendous humor and humanity” of was telling me,” Logelin recalls. Most Logelin’s story stood out to him as the pressingly, she told him to seize any memoir climbed the New York Times Best opportunities to secure their daughter’s Seller list. From the personal (Beaubaire’s future. When Lifetime made him an offer, young daughter is named Maddie) to he took it; they optioned the memoir the professional (the book’s universally twice, both times unsuccessfully. affecting themes), he knew Two Kisses As the project spent years languishing, for Maddy was a story he wanted to tell. Beaubaire strengthened his relationship The producer reached out to secure the with Sony’s Columbia Pictures and rights, landing on Logelin’s radar early on. moved again to option the memoir “David was the first name I heard that, and set it up there. “I was blown away at least in my agent’s estimation, was by that,” recalls Logelin. “I’d given somebody to trust and who could perhaps up completely by that point, so for get something done,” recalls Logelin. somebody to come back again and tell me In early conversations, Beaubaire they were interested was an inspiration.” conveyed his empathy for Logelin as Logelin said yes, gratefully. another father and husband, one who’d “Knowing David had been so deeply weathered an unimaginable loss with involved—how he believed in it so much grace. He also didn’t beat around the that wherever he went he was going to bush: In Hollywood, there’s no guarantee try to make it happen—gave me hope,” a project will get made, no matter who’s recalls the author. “I felt like, if this was involved. Regardless, Beaubaire promised going to get done, he was the one who Logelin he’d honor the story each step of was going to do it.” the way. “You’re playing with someone’s Beaubaire enlisted Marty Bowen and life,” says the producer. “You have to be Wyck Godfrey, the power producers able to respect the trust they’re putting in behind Dear John, The Fault in Our Stars your hands.” and the Twilight franchise. They were But Beaubaire wasn’t able to option close friends, and Godfrey’s wife, an Two Kisses for Maddy first. After Logelin’s ob-gyn, had even delivered Beaubaire’s

58 PRODUCED BY BOOK TO SCREEN

wasn’t until Kevin Hart and his HartBeat nationalities,” he adds. “It’s a universal prestigious endorsement, Logelin felt the Productions came aboard that Fatherhood story about being a parent and losing a production had steered true by not losing moved forward. Better known as a loved one.” sight of the people at its center. “David comedian, Hart had been seeking more Sony’s decision to license Fatherhood didn’t just care about the story itself,” dramatic work. Beaubaire was won over by to Netflix was not made easily. Beaubaire he says. “He’s surrounded himself with both his sincerity and the surprise factor says the studio held out through nearly people who all had one goal: to make me, of seeing Hart in a movie like Fatherhood. a full year of COVID-related turmoil in my daughter, my wife—all of us—proud. “It is unexpected to see Kevin in a more hopes of releasing it theatrically. But That was really special.” dramatic role,” he says. “And at first blush, that was sweetened considerably by For Beaubaire, there was no other path Matthew and Kevin don’t quite look alike, Higher Ground, the production company to producing Fatherhood. “Matt didn’t but that’s what made the movie fresh.” of former President Barack Obama and do it by himself; he had the support of Beaubaire also sensed that Hart could Michelle Obama, coming aboard as family, and a world out there that wanted build on the wide-reaching appeal of official presenters of the film. to help him—and so it is with making a Logelin’s story. “This crosses all races, all Even before Fatherhood earned such a movie,” he says. “It takes a village.”

LISEY’S STORY (APPLE(APPLE TV+)

ONE OF STEPHEN KING’S MOST PERSONAL STORIES Kevin Hart stars RECEIVES FITTINGLY in Netflix’s SENSITIVE Fatherhood, adapted from TREATMENT. Matthew Logelin’s memoir Two Kisses From The Stand to The for Maddy, out Shining, Stephen King’s June 18. best-selling novels combine the drama of everyday life with the allure of the supernatural, navigating an otherworldly membrane between the two. At once thrillingly cinematic and uniquely calibrated, his stories have long presented an intense yet irresistible challenge for producers and filmmakers. Buoyed by blockbuster adaptations like Pet Sematary, Castle Rock, and Andy Muschietti’s It franchise, Hollywood has reaffirmed its commitment to King in recent years. For the latest King adaptation, miniseries Lisey’s Story on Apple TV+, which debuts in June, the creators explain that the project was

PRODUCED BY 59 BOOK TO SCREEN

elevated by a special level of commitment from the author himself. “Stephen was intimately involved,” recalls producer Mary Rae Thewlis, who marveled at the fact that King not only wrote all eight episodes of the series himself, but also executive-produced and regularly visited set to converse with series director and executive producer Pablo Larraín and to watch filming take place. Larraín. “But the story is not really episodic. Thewlis saw none of the creative ego It’s a long movie, split into eighths.” one might expect from a household name. Larraín was particularly devoted to “I know he puts his pants on one leg at understanding the uncanny ambience a time, but he’s such an icon,” she adds. of Lisey’s Story. “I needed to believe in it, “We saw the guy who somehow made to actually understand that there could his way to set—and we were never quite be this other place that combines horror, sure how—and hung out for five to seven pain and sorrow with the possibility of hours, then drifted off.” healing,” he explains. To better understand The author’s personal favorite of his the material, Larraín flew to King’s home in many novels, Lisey’s Story follows a Maine, staying there as a guest until they’d woman (played by Julianne Moore in extensively discussed all eight episodes. the series) confronting memories of her He was struck by the deeply personal late husband, a famous novelist (Clive nature of the story for King, sensing a over from Thewlis after she left midway Owen), two years after his passing. vulnerability that the author offset with through the series. King was inspired to pen the book after humor and an earnest desire to embrace Familiarizing herself with both the returning home from a long hospital stay Larraín’s vision. “More than anything, it material and the team bringing it to life, to discover his wife had reorganized his was the connection we had through the Baron was struck by the respect and study, giving him a glimpse into what the process that was very powerful,” says mutual admiration King and Larraín space might look like after his death. Larraín. “It really changed me.” displayed amid reconciling their creative Bad Robot Productions, co-led by JJ One of Larraín’s most striking additions visions. “When Pablo deviated from Abrams and Katie McGrath, had previously to Lisey’s Story was the visual language he the scripts, he did so with Stephen’s teamed with King on Hulu miniseries fashioned around water, which emerges as blessing and understanding,” says Baron. 11.22.63 and horror anthology Castle a motif through the show. Moore’s Lisey is “They made sure the essence of their Rock, both adapted from his novels. King often seen floating or submerged in a series storytelling was in sync; my role was to executive-produced those projects, but of striking compositions that complement make sure everybody was talking, and before either had even premiered, was the story’s liminal, between-worlds nature. that the process stayed collaborative.” expressing interest in seeing Lisey’s Story Early on, Thewlis had locked down a But the friendship that had developed adapted as prestige television. Moore was residence where the production could between King and Larraín made that part a galvanizing force in moving it forward at capture all-important scenes of Lisey’s of Baron’s job easier. Though Larraín’s Bad Robot, and eventually at Apple, which house, but Larraín eventually came to her body of work—including Spencer, an acquired the rights to King’s novel and expressing his desire for that location to upcoming Princess Diana biopic starring handed down a straight-to-series order. include a swimming pool. It didn’t. She Kristen Stewart—marks him as a uniquely The actress was also the first to improvised. “We made a decision to build creative force, he says he felt his primary approach Larraín, a Chilean auteur who’d the swimming pool,” recalls Thewlis, mission throughout Lisey’s Story was to just directed experimental biopics Jackie laughing. “I’m not a creative producer, but get inside King’s head. and Neruda, about helming all eight so much of what I had to manage were “It was me following the master, trying episodes. It was a daunting proposition, creative solutions.” to understand how to put what he desires but he couldn’t refuse. Larraín and King remained close on the screen, but in doing so making those “The scope of the novel could never be throughout production. “On this project, desires become mine,” explains Larraín. “It put into a movie without minimizing what we were dealing with two auteurs,” started as a personal story for him, and it it is, and the impact it might have,” says summarizes Caroline Baron, who took became personal for me as well.”

60 PRODUCED BY