The Breakdown - Week of 8/10/20
Hey! I’ve got more news and analysis for you in this week’s edition of The Breakdown!
By this point, I’m sure you know the drill. First, a little housekeeping.
After much thought, I’ve decided we will be moving to a bimonthly publishing schedule for the news roundup and analysis posts. This means that there will be no Breakdown next week, but they’ll resume on this new schedule after that.
And on top of that, each month, there will be either a Writer’s Workshop (which will be comprised of a subscriber’s story analysis or a craft article) or an Industry Deep Dive for premium subscribers. This means three posts a month for premium subscribers and two posts for free subscribers.
This will afford me enough time to find the best news to track for you and also more room to dive deeper into topics when they warrant it. There may be more changes coming down the line in November, but we’ll see how this initial change affects things first.
Prompts
I’m having internet issues and can’t reach my source doc, so no prompts this week!
News
(Click the titles for the source articles)
The producers of the original "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" are shopping around a dramatic reboot of the series, based on a viral YouTube trailer. The four-minute video, reimagining the sitcom as a gritty drama, was created and directed by YouTuber Morgan Cooper, who will now collaborate with original star Will Smith on the new project.
The trailer, called "Bel-Air," was posted in March 2019 and caught Smith's attention organically on the Web. Smith's Westbrook Studios, the show’s creators Andy and Susan Borowitz, and original producers Quincy Jones, Benny Medina, and Universal TV are all onboard. At the time I spotted the article, all were in talks with various streaming platforms about picking up the new series. Word is there’s a straight-to-series bidding war now in play with most of the major streamers.
So, for my take. This is another one of those fairy tale stories of gliding past the gatekeepers that I absolutely love. Again, there’s always more to the story, and it’s never as easy as it looks. But once you see the trailer, you’ll see what a terribly clever approach it is, and how making the series gritty and having the piece speak to the societal issues the original show was forced to gloss over is actually a brilliant take on a reboot. The fact that it’s shot with such quality also speaks so well for its creator. I’ve seen quite a few homemade sizzle reels; and I have to say, rarely can they escape the patina of the extraordinarily low budgets they were shot on. This one has the sophistication and polish that is so often lacking in homemade endeavors and has that “it” factor that captures Hollywood’s attention, no matter the origin of the piece.
Below is a brief interview with the creator, a bit with Will Smith talking about how he came to the project, and the trailer itself. Definitely give it a watch!
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Netflix Lands Daniel Kaluuya to Produce & Lead The Upper World
Netflix’s adaptation of Femi Fadubga’s forthcoming YA fantasy novel The Upper World has taken a big step forward in development as Oscar nominee Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out and Judas and the Black Messiah) has signed on to star and produce the project.
Set to be published by Penguin UK and HarperCollins US in mid-2021 and 2022 and intended as the first of a series of novels, the synopsis reads as follows:
Esso is caught in a deadly feud and on the verge of expulsion when he realizes he has an unexpected gift: access to a world where he can see glimpses of the past and the future. A generation away, Rhia is walking to football practice in 2035, unaware that the mysterious stranger she’s about to meet desperately needs her help to avert a bullet fired 15 years ago.
The Get Out and Black Panther star has signed on to portray Esso, the protagonist of the time-traveling tale, and will produce the film alongside Screen Arcade’s Bryan Unkeless and Eric Newman, with the latter having brought Fadugba’s novel to the streaming platform, who swiftly acquired the worldwide feature rights to it. The debuting author is also attached to the project as an executive producer.
Dive deeper into the article to read more about what made the story so appealing to Netflix executives.
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YA Mystery 'One of Us Is Lying' Nabs Series Order at Peacock
Peacock has handed out a series order for YA drama One of Us Is Lying. The series, originally developed for E! before moving to NBCUniversal's fledgling streaming platform, is based on Karen M. McManus' best-selling novel. It revolves around five high school students who walk into detention — and only four come out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide.
The show has had a long road to pickup: Universal Studio Group's UCP won the rights to McManus' novel in 2017, originally setting it up at E!. That network later exited the scripted business, and the project moved to Peacock in 2019.
Peacock has ordered eight episodes of One of Us Is Lying. Dario Madrona, co-creator of Netflix breakout Elite, will executive produce and serve as showrunner.
This was one of those stories that you knew, almost as soon as it hit, would go on to be adapted somewhere. The whole Breakfast Club nature of the cast and the mystery driving the story, plus the fact that it has an element of Gen Z tech in the mix, all come together nicely to make it ripe for adaptation. The fact that it will now play on the Peacock streaming network may mean it will be missing much of its demo, though. With its heavy emphasis on back-catalog broadcast shows and a few high-brow British originals, like Brave New World and The Capture, plus a healthy dollop of kids shows, Peacock doesn’t feel like they’re quite ready for the 18-25 demo yet. But everything is so new and the baby streamers are experimenting and learning. So, we’ll see.
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Stephenie Meyer says more books coming in 'Twilight' saga as 'Midnight Sun' sells 1M copies
Stephenie Meyer's "Midnight Sun," the long-anticipated retelling of "Twilight" from vampire Edward Cullen's perspective, rather than Bella Swan's, claims the No. 1 spot this week on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list, selling more than 1 million copies in its first week out. That number includes presales and all formats: print, e-books and audio.
With this kind of blockbuster success, the question then becomes: will there be more? And the answer is…yes.
According to Meyer:
"There are two more books I think in that world that I want to write. I have got them outlined and a chapter written I think of the first one, so I know it's there.”
On some level, I have to say, I’m not entirely surprised by that 1M number, on another level…I kinda am. I’d honestly thought that with four books and four movies, we’d pretty much been there, done that. But apparently the appetite for Bella and Edward runs high. And with more books in this newest series planned, could three more movies and a spinoff TV show be far behind?
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‘Queer sci-fi romance' to Orbit in three-way auction
Orbit UK has won debut author Everina Maxwell's space opera series, described as queer sci-fi romance, in a three-way auction.
Chris Scheina at St Martins Press, Macmillan US, sold UK and Commonwealth rights in three titles to senior commissioning editor Jenni Hill at the Little, Brown Book Group imprint. Tamara Kawar at ICM sold US rights to Ali Fisher at Tor and translation rights are being handled by Daisy Meyrick at Curtis Brown.
Hill said: “I couldn’t be happier that Everina chose Orbit to launch her career in the UK. Winter’s Orbit [the first in the series] is a truly phenomenal debut, and the story of Prince Kiem and Count Jainan is one to rival all the best love stories of science fiction and fantasy.”
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Meet Associate Agent Emily Forney and Literary Assistant Umaima Saleem - BookEnds Literary Agency
I like to highlight introductions to new literary and talent agents when I catch them. This is because, as much as you dream of snagging that big, dream agent, your better bet is often that newly minted agent who’s been doing the assistant thing for a little while. It’s not that you shouldn’t dream big, or try for that more established agent, but even when they open up for submissions, their bar is often incredibly high. In terms of talent and bankability, you sort of have to comp yourself against their other clients and ask, why should this agent take time away from these bestselling, or famous, or incredibly bankable clients to help me build my career? It’s not to put yourself down. It’s to force yourself to do a reality check against the bandwidth they’re likely to have to help you as a fledgling author (or screenwriter since the same questions arise.) I like to say, think big, but stay open.
Final Thoughts
I’m going to keep this really short because I’m having severe internet issues and am not sure if I’ll be able to even get this piece out in time. One trend I noticed in this week’s edition is that almost all of the stories revolved around YA works. While this is just a tiny sliver of the business that’s been going on in publishing and entertainment, it does speak to a bit of a gap I’ve noticed, more so in entertainment than publishing. It feels like there’s still a severe lack, a dearth if you will, of good entertainment for the upper teen market.
With Gen Z grappling with some serious cultural and social justice issues right now, there’s plenty of room in that market to tackle tough topics while also telling a very layered but human story (being in your late teens or early twenties in this day and age is just downright complicated.) So, if you’re looking to make your treatise about the injustice of class, wrapped in a delectable mystery or a grounded sci-fi world, more marketable, skewing your characters younger might not be a bad idea. YA goes through its booms and busts, but with holes in the streaming markets for that 18-25 demo, literary agents constantly listing YA on their manuscript wish lists, and Gen Z and Millennials looking for more meaningful content and prepared to tackle difficult topics, it might not be a bad strategy to pursue.
Just a thought…
Until next time (in two weeks, actually!)
~ Paula
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