{"id":816319,"date":"2026-03-10T09:25:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T09:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/816319\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T09:25:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T09:25:16","slug":"can-heated-rivaly-effect-have-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/816319\/","title":{"rendered":"Can ‘Heated Rivaly’ Effect Have Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tHoards of American and European agents, producers and executives are descending on the Kensington Olympia today for the enormous London Book Fair<\/a> (LFB), but whether they can find what they were looking for is another matter. <\/p>\n

\n\tThere is a quiet sense of optimism in the TV and film industry this year as distance grows between the present and the lows of the U.S. labor strikes and American co-pro crisis. LBF attendees \u2013 hitting Olympia for the final time before it switches to the ExCel centre on the other side of London in 2027 \u2013 will be keen to discover the next Normal People, Lessons in Chemistry or Heartstopper.<\/p>\n

\n\tPossibly the buzziest TV show right now, Heated Rivalry<\/a>, is of course based on Rachel Reid\u2019s book, and with projects including Stephanie Bain\u2019s revenge thriller Wits (described as a potential \u201cbook of the fair\u201d by one drama producer and several agents), gothic vampire re-telling Wuthering Frights and TV writer Raelle Tucker\u2019s debut Obscura on show, there are deals to be done.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor many who we spoke to ahead of the event, however, there is a chasm between what\u2019s hot in publishing and what\u2019s hot in the world of TV and film. This chasm, they say, is having quite the impact on getting adaptations to screen. BookTok, the corner of TikTok followed by millions of fans worldwide that can make or break an authors career, is playing a key role.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere is a huge divergence between what TV is calling out for right now and what authors are writing,\u201d says Hannah Griffiths, who oversees literary adaptations for SAS Rogue Heroes and Wallander maker Banijay. \u201cBookTok values romance, yearning and romantasy, and that\u2019s not what TV wants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTV and film, Griffiths says, is placing stock on domestic thrillers and procedurals with a twist \u2013 think The Housemaid, The Girlfriend and All Her Fault \u2013 which are less in vogue on the publishing side.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Sanjana Seelam, one of WME<\/a>\u2019s agents responsible for adaptations, publishing and the TV and film industry are \u201cright now not totally aligned.\u201d She adds that networks and streamers \u201cwant muscular conspiracy thrillers like The Day of the Jackal, but they are only on [publisher] backlists. It\u2019s harder to find [new thrillers] in publishing right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s one core reason for this. \u201cRomantasy is still dominating,\u201d says Seelam. \u201cEvery buyer has one they\u2019re taking a step with and the industry is watching closely.\u201d CAA<\/a> book-to-screen specialist Michelle Kroes similarly adds: \u201cRomantasy has been on trend and so popular with publishers for a couple of years now. Hollywood was slow to respond, but every studio has their project now. They are waiting to see what comes of it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tBlending high-stakes magical adventures with passionate love story, romantasy has been dominating the charts for several years now, but not one has made it to screen. As one drama producer describes, the market is \u201csaturated\u201d and the stories \u201chard to adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHulu was worked on Sarah J. Maas\u2019s wildly popular A Court of Thorns and Roses, but this has, for now, been scrapped, while Netflix is slowly making a version of Callie Hart\u2019s Quicksilver<\/a>. Prime Video has for a long while been prepping a TV adaptatiokn of Rebecca Yarros\u2019 Fourth Wing with Michael B. Jordan. Legendary Entertainment, meanwhile, is slow prepping Alchemised, the romantasy that started out as Harry Potter fan fiction. Alchemised joins All The Young Dudes as fan fiction about the world\u2019s most famous wizard on show at LBF.<\/p>\n

\n\tJason Richman, partner and Media Rights Co-Head at UTA<\/a>, says studios are still calling him about the romantasy, but concerns remains \u201cRomantasy is still a hard sell for media rights,\u201d he says. \u201cIf something gets made and is popular then who knows. People understand it\u2019s a viable trend, but we\u2019re all waiting to see if Fourth Wing happens. If it was a hit, there would be an avalanche of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEmily Hayward-Whitlock, Head of Literary at London agency The Artists Partnership, shares a similar view. \u201cUntil Fourth Wing gets made, it feels like there isn\u2019t such a market for romantasy in TV,\u201d she says, adding that buyers instead want \u201cprocedurals\u00a0\u2013 but procedurals in the books world feel quite derivative, often branding themselves on pre-existing works.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOne procedural did emerge as the big winner of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the publishing world\u2019s previous big-hitting event, which saw a heated auction featuring a whopping 21 bidders doing battle for Laura Shepherd-Robinson\u2019s Tower of London-set We Are the Dead. A24 won out for that one. <\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tSeelam is remaining positive and is happy to trawl through backlist for other opportunities \u2013 noting that as far as she knows WME is the only agency with a dedicated librarian. She believes \u201cthe pendulum will swing again\u201d so that TV, film and publishing do soon come together more closely.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 effect<\/strong><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Fran\u00e7ois<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSabrina Lantos<\/p>\n

\n\tThat pendulum may be righting itself already with the breakout success of a certain queer hockey romance, adapted from the successful book series, which is already breeding similar shows.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tTelling the story of a love affair between two top ice hockey stars, Heated Rivalry, which started life on Canada\u2019s Crave and now airs around the world, including on HBO in the U.S., is all anyone in the biz can talk about.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s hard to make romance on TV work but then of course Heated Rivalry comes along and everyone says, \u2018You can do it,’\u201d adds Banijay\u2019s Griffiths. \u201cThis is a convergence of the two industries\u2019 interests right now and will be felt on backlist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe success of Heated Rivalry therefore represents one area where publishing and screen are aligned, according to Yasmin McDonald at CAA\u2019s book department in London. \u201cEveryone is looking for love stories in whatever format they come,\u201d she adds. \u201cWhether weepy, sexy or romantic, people want entertainment to feel hopeful and joyful. That is one area where the two spaces are not diverging.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother voice advocating the Heated Rivalry effect is Jazz Adamson, Media Rights Agent\u00a0at UTA-owned Curtis Brown<\/a>. \u201cIt is definitely true,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019ve been getting requests for romance with a twist, alongside the evergreens like thriller and crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIf the screen industries and publishing do feel far apart, we are being told about deliberate attempts to bring them back into line. One large book publisher, we understand, has launched an IP department in which ideas inspired by TV are developed in-house and then farmed out to authors to pen books based on those ideas. Another deal that we understand is cooking is between an American studio and a distinctive author. Rather than adapting this author\u2019s previous work, we understand the studio has commissioned him to write a short story for which it will own the adaptation rights, but he will retain publishing rights. \u201cThat is an incredibly smart way of building out a relationship,\u201d says one agent in the space.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe trend for short stories as the basis for IP adaptations is certainly alive, with one U.S. dealmaker attributing it to High Side, the package based on an unpublished short story by\u00a0Jaime Oliveira\u00a0that brings A Complete Unknown\u2019s\u00a0James Mangold\u00a0and\u00a0Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet back together, with Chernin Entertainment attached.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Timoth\u00e9e<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tTimoth\u00e9e Chalamet and James Mangold are re-teaming for \u2018High Side\u2019 based on an unpublished short story<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDeadline<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat was perhaps the trend of 2025,\u201d says UTA\u2019s Richman. \u201cThere are still short stories that are selling out in the market.\u201d UTA will be pitching a short story from Nine Perfect Strangers author , The Price of Honey, which is due to launch as an Amazon Original Kindle Single in April.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother gathering buzz is The Decorator, which we hear is a 28-page short story CAA is representing at LBF. The story, from Cody Behan, has hints of Industry, following a high-end interior design firm where one ambitious designer finds herself in the crosshairs of her boss, setting up a game of cat-and-mouse that thrusts the business into the spotlight.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile these spec stories do involve agents and producers getting involved in the writing process at a much earlier stage than normal, CAA\u2019s McDonald says: \u201cThis comes out of organic conversations with authors who we\u2019ve been working with over long times on ideas they\u2019ve been mulling over, and you are encouraging them to write in that space. It\u2019s not that people are reverse engineering in a pragmatic way, but working with authors to get their material out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOne agent, who chose to remain anonymous, says the short story trend \u201cis a direct reaction to the fact that what\u2019s really working in publishing is romantasy and female-driven suspense, but that doesn\u2019t lend itself to returning series. What film and TV seem to want are big, dynastic soaps and that\u2019s just not something that publishing is responding to at the moment, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAmerican money in the market<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMore generally, American co-pro money is slowly coming back into the market \u2013 BBC drama boss Lindsay Salt recently told us that particular storm has been \u201cweathered\u201d<\/a> \u2013 but this remains slow and Normal People-sized deals are fewer and further between. \u201cBooks really are a sprat to catch a mackerel,\u201d says Griffiths. \u201cA big writer is only going to be got [for an adaptation] with either an amazing book or a guaranteed bestseller, or an auction so noisy that all the big players are aware and show their hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn place of the declining American dollar has come international co-pros, according to Hayward-Whitlock, who believes \u201cout of the U.S. co-pro crisis came creative solutions.\u201d Producers from Italy, France and Spain have been getting in touch about material, she adds, even enquiring about books that aren\u2019t set in their home country but could be reset with a bit of creative thinking. \u201cNow more than ever, creative partnerships are key,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

\n\tHelen Manders, a translation rights agent at CAA, concurs, and says the international impact is also being felt in the other direction, with U.S. and UK studios open to foreign-language books more than ever. \u201cThere is more interest in international voices,\u201d she says. \u201cPrevious Fairs were focused on more Anglo-American voices. Our catalog is a more diverse list of authors: Two Italian writers, a Serbian writer, Japanese authors and we\u2019re talking to a Korean author. Buyers are responding to that, and the need has come the other way.\u201d She points to Veronico Raimo\u2019s Non Scrivere Di Me (Don\u2019t Write About Me), which follows a young woman who finds out her problematic former boyfriend has died and blames him for her current predicament as a waitress angry at the world. \u201cIt\u2019s quite literary, but the Italian publisher has sold 100,000 copies,\u201d says Manders.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne adaptation exec, who spoke on condition of anonymity, feels Americans are not only making less co-pros but are also cutting out the middle person when it comes to seeking European projects. \u201cThe big American studios want to intercept projects at source,\u201d explains the exec, who says UK agents and producers are therefore being bypassed. \u201cThere\u2019s much less of a sense of collaboration. I would make the case that if an author wants more access to the adaptation process, some creative involvement, and a view of what\u2019s happening along the way, then it is much easier to have people based in the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNonetheless, WME\u2019s Seelam, whose team first discovered Prime Video hit 56 Days at the London fair, sees LBF as a great opportunity to get British, American and European colleagues together in a room. There\u2019s clearly significant buzz building.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEveryone is congregating here,\u201d says Seelam. \u201cThese fairs are amazing for relationship building and identifying voices. What we find now will be on air three years from now. That\u2019s our plan, and it is critical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s a general sense that market conditions mean adaptation buyers could be tempted into something new. \u201cThere is a wealth of material on the market and auctions all over the place,\u201d says CAA\u2019s Kroes. \u201cThe volume is here like it hasn\u2019t been for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKroes and McDonald say the speculative fiction space, the \u2018what-if\u2019 world encompassing everything from alternate history to magical realism, is driving business, especially where it is relatively grounded. They cite Julie Buxbaum\u2019s The Past Selves Club, in which a woman named Hazel Stein inexplicably finds herself on a party bus hurtling through space-time with seven other versions of herself aged between eight and 88 once every ten years. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt has an emotional core,\u201d says CAA Manders. \u201cAnyone would finish it in tears.\u201d Kroes adds: \u201cThere is such an appetite for that \u2013 it gives you escapism but can be for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCurtis Brown\u2019s Adamson says that Stephanie Bain\u2019s Wits is \u201cour hot book of the market, and goes to show that even if a book goes against what people say they want, there can be buzz. If it gets a really good publishing deal, it will cut through.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe story, which we hear C&W Agency\u2019s Clarie Conville sold to John Murray after a heated auction, is set in the world of restoration theater in 17th century London, but follows some rather familiar tropes and has traces of Yorgos Lanthimos\u2019 The Favourite. It follows two rival female playwrights, one of whom finds her work being plagiarized by a man and other dealing with a Puritanical firebrand preacher who disrupts her work everyday. They decide to team up to take out the other\u2019s adversary.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s a wink at what it\u2019s like to be a woman throughout the ages, so it\u2019s pretty fun,\u201d says one market watcher with knowledge of the book. \u201cIt\u2019s challenging for film because of the period, but it would be the kind of thing that you could put together with two actresses.\u201d Curtis Brown\u2019s Nick Marston will be selling adaptation right at LBF.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u2018Ocean\u2019s 11\u2019 at the Vatican<\/strong>\u201c<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother book generating buzz from the Curtis-UTA stable is White Smoke, penned by sci-fi author Nicholas Binge under the pseudonym Nick Bruckner. UTA\u2019s Richman has been shopping it alongside Alex Cochrane from Greyhound Literary, and we hear it has triggered a seven-party auction.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m billing this one as Ocean\u2019s 11 at the Vatican,\u201d says UTA\u2019s Richman. The story follows a rag-tag group of misanthropes who attempt to rob jewels from the Vatican. \u201cThe hope is it will kick of a series with the same group of characters,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt\u2019s really fun thrill ride with a commercial pop to it, and is super character-based.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLast year, the LBF was held to the backdrop of a shellshocked Hollywood, which has only just started recalibrating from the 2023 labor strikes as the wildfires of January 2025 torched homes and destroyed lives. This year, while the sense of disconnect between publishing and screen is evident, and media mega-mergers threatens to upend the industry again, there is also more optimism.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFrom a media rights perspective, it\u2019s a different vibe at the start of the year to 2025,\u201d says Richman. \u201cIt\u2019s kicked off in a big way and hasn\u2019t let off. Our group is super busy across the globe. There are new projects in development despite the disruption of Paramount acquiring Warner Bros\/ Discovery, and we\u2019re still seeing offers from Warner, Paramount and Netflix.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe\u2019s acutely aware there is new money in the market, thanks to the billion-dollar break fee Paramount just paid Netflix over the WBD deal. With a glint in his eye, he tells Deadline: \u201cAs we\u2019ve told Netflix when they\u2019ve made offers, they have an extra $2.8B to spend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHeated Rivalry or no Heated Rivalry, that\u2019s an enticing thought for all at LBF.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hoards of American and European agents, producers and executives are descending on the Kensington Olympia today for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[69175,748,17139,235274,393,4884,200579,257,235275,16,15,206333,206439],"class_list":["post-816319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-agencies","tag-britain","tag-caa","tag-curtis-brown","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-heated-rivalry","tag-london","tag-london-book-fair","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-uta","tag-wme"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116204163979060628","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}