Some stories refuse to stay on the page. The Hollywood Reporter’s Beyond the Book column explores what happens when books make the leap to screen and beyond — unpacking what changed, how it was done and why it matters with the creatives who made it.
***
There’s a reason producer Jennifer Gibgot and manager-producer Lena Roklin keep finding each other at the center of the romance-adaptation arena.
Gibgot has spent three decades contributing to the romance genre’s onscreen catalog — from She’s All That and 17 Again to Nicholas Sparks’ The Last Song, the After films and the Step Up franchise. Roklin forged a path building a management company that works with young stars, but also works as a producer with credits including Upgraded, One Fast Move and The Other Zoey. She recently produced Clashing Through the Snow for Amazon MGM, starring Chris Briney and Michelle Randolph.
It’s fitting that a romance story would spark a creative partnership between Gibgot and Roklin. After acquiring the rights to Anna Todd’s The Last Sunrise novel, her new romance departure from her bestselling After books that were adapted into feature films that Gibgot produced, Gibgot was searching for a director. The film’s would-be director Carlson Young was traced back to Roklin’s roster.
“All roads lead back to Lena,” Gibgot tells The Hollywood Reporter.
The film was eventually sold to Amazon, with the two forging their own organic chemistry that has led to a string of high-profile book-to-screen deals — several they tease are unannounced but with authors Elena Armas, Lauren Asher and Meagan Brandy. Their recently announced project includes a series adaptation of Todd’s forthcoming romance House of Crowns, which they describe as “Maxton Hall on steroids.”
“I represent a lot of these young artists who did a lot of Jen’s movies over the years, and so we’ve been really good friends for a really long time, but I think there was this moment where we started seeing how much we love just being in the trenches together,” Roklin says. “I guess her love of books and her being a rabid reader, and my history of being a rabid reader, I think it really aligned and we have clearly very similar taste”
As they stand on the front lines of an industry racing to option the next big hit, having just released The Last Sunrise last week, which was also produced by Gibgot’s producing partner Andrew Panay and Ethea Entertainment, the two reflected on the industry’s romance adaptation boom with THR, offering their insights and formula with what goes into making the next hit book adaptation.
Aligning With Authors: “Such a Massive Voice in How We Decide How We’re Gonna Paint Their Stories”
When adapting a novel, the first steps are going back to the origin of the source material: the author. Author involvement itself varies by writer, the producers explain. Based on ones they’ve partnered with, they cite Todd as an author who wanted to co-produce, visit sets and stay embedded through production. “She wants to be completely involved, and we have embraced that,” Gibgot says. In contrast, when working with Ali Hazelwood on an upcoming project, they note she was fine with a hands-off approach and set visits.
“This is the beauty of Jen and I being women, being avid readers, being so book focused. … We want the teamwork as much as the novelist wants,” Roklin said. “If they don’t want it, we’ll host them on set and celebrate the achievement with them instead.”
Whether the author is involved or not, ask either producer what novelists care most about once a deal closes, and they’ll say: “Protect the essence of the book.”
“There are always going to be certain lines that fans will quote, certain scenes they’ll write about,” Gibgot says.
When developing an adaptation, author feedback is top of mind to identify the untouchables, plot evolution and casting decisions before they’re made public. But securing a book or author with a devoted fanbase results in quick criticism over any deemed wrong move. Casting alone is where fan fury can easily erupt, they say.
The Last Sunrise producer Jennifer Gibgot and author Anna Todd.
Jennifer Gigbot
“I’ve been on the good side and the bad side,” Roklin says of fan response. “The fans have such a strong idea in the book of who should be their lead.”
Roklin points to the the reaction of Patrick Schwarzenegger’s casting opposite Phoebe Dynevor, whom she manages, in the adaptation of Emily Henry’s Beach Read: “There was this whole, ‘That’s not how we saw it.’”
“I was on the set last week, and he’s gonna be a freakin’ amazing Gus, but they [the fans] don’t know. And on paper, because he doesn’t look like this, there was all this pushback,“ she adds. She also cites Boys of Tommen, based on Chloe Walsh’s bestselling series and stars leads she works with, as having a “rabid fandom” where there were high casting expectations.
Gibgot recalls backlash on Hero Fiennes Tiffin’s casting as Hardin in After, which notably disappeared after the film’s premiere. “They loved him as soon as they saw the movie. They didn’t want anybody else to play him,” the producer says.
Ultimately, author signoff matters, the producers say. However, the process should always be trusted.
“Trust the process and know that we know what we’re doing, and that we have just as much, if not more, invested than they [the fans] do,” Gibgot says.
Book Search: Excitement, “Hunger” and BookTok
In an industry where adaptations are a gold rush, competition for proven bestsellers has intensified, the producers say. And the search for the next big hit varies from past, present and even future books.
“When we are looking at things and material, we do need to know that there is excitement around it and a hunger,” Gibgot says of their criteria when considering what’s adaptable. “Full disclosure, I think it is much easier to sell a book or set up a book if it has been a bestseller, has a fandom, millions of readers. … I do spend time on BookTok. I do spend time looking over the bestseller lists. It’s not like I’m out there trying to find a diamond in the rough five people have read. I’m looking for the books that people are still talking about [and] that are still part of the conversation.”
The producers say they’ve sold four books to Amazon this year alone, including House of Crowns, which grew out of a set conversation with Amazon vp and head of international originals at Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios Nicole Clemens.
They recall Clemens searching for a successor to Maxton Hall amid the series’ final season airing at the end of the year. While on The Last Sunrise set, Gibgot and Roklin workshopped a premise with Todd on the spot. “She was like, ‘Wait, I can write this,’” Gibgot recalled. The trio “reverse-engineered” the idea into a planned trilogy and sold it to Amazon before a single chapter existed. The book will be a series and filmed in the U.K., Gibgot teases.
House of Crowns will follow “an elite boarding school in Switzerland where royalty and world leaders send their children. When a poor outsider there on academic scholarship and a gilded heiress with dangerous secrets fall into a forbidden love, it could shatter both of them.“
Roklin adds, “I do feel when you are in a competitive situation where the writers, a lot of times, when you have a backing, they don’t only look at money. They also look [at] where they will feel safe. I do feel from our experience and also our access to talent … when we sell a book, we just see their vision. We are able to communicate about the vision correctly, and they can feel they will not be railroaded.”
However, not every bet lands. The producers recall losing a bidding war because the producers and the author disagreed on format: they envisioned a film, “but the author saw it as a TV show.”
Gibgot, The Last Sunrise director Carlson Young and producer Lena Roklin.
Jennifer Gigbot
Streaming vs. Theatrical: Fandom Takes Care of Marketing
The debate from theatrical versus streaming also relies on whether the story makes sense to give “more oxygen” to characters and story arcs. Roklin recalls being in a bidding war for an “amazing book” they feel will be “a competitor to Off Campus” and the author expressing their hope for the story to be explored as a show.
The format debate now runs toward television over film for a different reason: runway. Roklin explains, “I think it’s a faster process. For us, it’s great too because the audiences will have the result faster than if you do it theatrically, in my opinion.”
The timeline of their recent film speaks for itself: Gibgot says the deal for The Last Sunrise closed with Amazon last April, the film was shooting in Spain by August, and debuted on the platform a year later.
Another benefit to streaming is a built-in marketing machine: fans and social media.
“What costs the most when you’re making the film is the marketing of it,” Gibgot said, pointing to The Last Sunrise‘s trailer, which she said went viral on BookTok and Instagram without any paid push from Amazon. “As long as there’s a fandom that loves the author or the book, and you cut a good trailer, the marketing just takes care of itself.”
However, theatrical isn’t out of the question nor dead in a current streaming world. Gibgot cites Colleen Hoover’s adaptations as an example. “If you look at Colleen Hoover’s movies, Anna [Todd] produced one of them [Reminders of Him] and it made almost $100 million,” she says. (The film grossed $89 million worldwide during its theatrical run.) It Ends With Us was huge. I think studios are now waking up, hence [Emily Henry’s book adaptation] Beach Read going with 20th [Century Studios].”
Inclusivity and Telling “Everyone’s Stories”
Adapting romance stories has allowed for inclusion both in front of and behind the screen. The producers point to The Last Sunrise — shot with an all-Latino cast in Mallorca and featuring a queer supporting storyline — as an example of expanding who gets centered onscreen. Gibgot says she sought out a female director — Carlson Young directed — specifically to shoot the story “through a female gaze.” “That probably would have been a really hard movie to get made as a theatrical release,” she said.
“The beauty of being women and having to kind of fight our way up in this [industry], we know how important it is to tell generously everyone’s stories because we understand how hard it is if you’re not a specific mold. That’s why I think we, specifically Jen and I, focus on how we can tell a broader story that tells everyone’s story,” Roklin adds.
Shows like Heated Rivalry — which Gibgot said she wishes she’d made — as proof that stories built around underrepresented communities are finding audiences across gender lines, not just within them.
“What a time to be able to be a producer and tell these stories. It’s just amazing, honestly, and the way that audiences are embracing them, and the way they’re transcending,” Gibgot says of the romance adaptation boom allowing opportunities for inclusive storytelling.
Looking Ahead: Classic Love Stories Reimagined and the “More the Merrier” With Adaptations
Romance adaptations may be a hot commodity, but both producers see the genre’s next wave circling back to literary romance classics reworked for a modern audience — pointing to Wuthering Heights, Netflix’s upcoming Pride and Prejudice adaptation starring Olivia Colman and the theatrical Sense and Sensibility with Daisy Edgar-Jones as early signals.
“I think the audiences’ appetite is expanding,” Roklin says. “I mean, look at The Odyssey. They’re open to consuming more classics now in this space. And if you look at the Odyssey, the centerpiece of it is a love story.”
As for fears of romance oversaturation, neither producer is worried.
“I think that this audience is so hungry,” Gibgot says, using Off Campus as an example given it came out in May and is still a top watch for Prime Video months later. “People are watching it because it transcended. It’s not just young girls; it’s women in their 30s to 55. I think that everybody who loves romances, they just can’t get enough. I watch everything that comes out that is in that sweet spot because I just like to consume it. I’m not worried about being oversaturated, I think it’s cyclical too. There’s a period right now. There’s classics, sports romance, [but] it continues to evolve.”
The appeal of books is palpable, Roklin explains.
“I almost feel it’s harder to sell now a movie that’s not based on the book than a movie on the book, and that’s great,” Roklin says. “The studios found that they want the support of the BookTok readers, all the passion, and they want that support that’s invested in the property when they’re promoting the movie because it’s so hard to promote a movie.”
“I have always loved to read ever since I was young, and so am very excited to be having this moment where there’s such a thirst for content based on these books, and have been really enjoying this ride,“ Gibgot says.
Roklin says, “There’s room for every book, every adaptation, classic, modern and there’s enough audience, fanhood to support all of them.”
Credit: Source link