In one of the best-selling books of the year, Netflix won a massive bidding war to grab the screen rights Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage By Bill Borden.
But it’s not just the book deal, said to be worth seven figures, according to sources, that has caused a stir. It’s the talent associated with it.
Gwyneth Paltrow is enjoying a career resurgence thanks to her work in the film, which was nominated for several Oscars Marty Supremeis on board to star and executive produce the adaptation. Heidi Schreck, the playwright who wrote the Tony Award-nominated Broadway play What does the Constitution mean to me?on board to write the script.
Stacey Sher will produce. Cher is a veteran producer who received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture in the 2000s Erin Brockovich And 2012 Django is unrestrainedthe final part of Quentin Tarantino’s trilogy of films in which she participated. She is also producing the upcoming film adaptation of Colleen Hoover fact Starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson.
Borden was a Harvard-educated lawyer who came from a life of privilege. Vanderbilt and Balinese were in her blood. Her grandmother was Truman Capote’s swan. She married a wealthy man, giving up her career to raise three children and be a devoted wife in a life that included a house on Martha’s Vineyard and private clubs.
Then, after the first week of lockdown during the pandemic, her loving husband of 20 years came to her and said he was leaving her. He did not even have an interest in custody of the children. It was closed suddenly and incomprehensibly.
But Borden didn’t decide to remain invisible. She wrote about her suffering in New York Times An article about modern love, which is much talked about. Then he wrote Strangers.
The book, which arrived with a lot of publicity, was praised for its emotionally honest account of the shame felt and the strength needed to move on after the breakup of a relationship. appeared first at the top of New York Times Bestseller list and has remained in the top ten for nine weeks now.
The book became a blockbuster Hollywood property in mid-February, with studios A24, Sony, and Warner Bros. producing the title. Plus, Amazon and Netflix, along with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity, are heading down the aisle to put a ring on the rights to the best-selling book immediately.
In the end, Netflix won out, with Lighthouse Management + Media, which represented Paltrow along with CAA, being key to the deal.
UTA brokered the auction, representing both Burden and Schreck, the latter of whom also previously worked on television dramas Nurse Jackie and BillionsAnd the Amazon comedy series I love your dick. She also writes live action She Ra Series for Amazon.
Burden is also repped by Brettne Bloom at The Book Group while Schreck is also repped by Curate Management.
