In a competitive situation, Amazon MGM Studios has picked up the film rights to Romantic Hero, the upcoming novel by Kirsty Greenwood.
The book deal marks the first acquisition for Sullivan Street, the recently launched banner from Jennifer Salke, the former head of Amazon MGM who segued into producing last year. Salke will produce the adaptation with Matt Milam, who runs film and TV for the shingle.
The pickup package also sees Peter Chiarelli, who is writing a new Charlie’s Angles feature for Sony, attached to pen the script for the adaptation.
Greenwood, who lives in England, is former book editor who turned to writing romantic comedies, finding success in the “speculative romantic comedy” field, meaning romance stories with a fantastical aspect. Romantic Hero is no exception. The story follow a heartbroken romance novelist who must confront her writer’s block when the notorious cowboy villain from her books suddenly appears in the real world, determined to rewrite his fate and claim his own happily ever after.
Katy Saindon brought in the project and will oversee for Sullivan Street Productions.
Greenwood, whose previous best-seller The Love of My Afterlife was selected as a Good Morning America Book Club pick, is repped by CAA and Hannah Todd at Janklow Agency.
Chiarelli is a writer-producer who co-wrote the hit Warner Bros. feature Crazy Rich Asians as well as the Ryan Reynolds-Sandra Bullock comedy The Proposal. He is credited with co-story on Sony Pictures Animation’s recent hit GOAT. Chiarelli is repped by UTA, Mosaic, and Yorn Levine.
Pete Chiarelli
Nicole Caldwell
Salke previously served as head of Amazon MGM Studios, overseeing global film and television development, production, acquisitions, and distribution. Under her leadership, the studio greenlit and delivered a broad slate of hit titles across film and television, among them The Boys, Fallout, Cross, Reacher, A Simple Favor, Air, The Idea of You, Road House, The Summer I Turned Pretty, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and Amazon’s first theatrical hit, Project Hail Mary. Before that, she served as president of NBC Entertainment and oversaw Universal Television. She also held senior creative roles at Twentieth Century Fox Television.
Since moving into producing, she has helped get the long-in-development drama Honeymoon with Harry off the ground, with Kevin Costner, Jake Gyllenhaal and Sarah Pidgeon on board to star in the feature that will begin shooting in April. She is also producing a sequel to Amazon’s rom-com hit Red White and Royal Blue, along with Berlanti Productions.
Romantic Hero is the first original project to come from Sullivan Street.
