THEY CAN READ A ROOM
THESE 8 AGENTS, MANAGERS, SCOUTS AND PRODUCERS ARE AMONG HOLLYWOOD’S TOP BOOK-TO-SCREEN CONDUITS
Book-to-screen deals are reported by the Hollywood trades in pieces that dutifully mention the novelists, directors and actors involved but often leave out the people who actually made it happen — the agent or manager who hooked up the players, the producer who optioned it years ago, the book scout whose secret source shared the proposal before book publishers had even seen it.
Below are a few of Hollywood’s most important behindthe-scenes movers, shakers and connection-makers — agents, scouts, managers and execs. Not all of them toil in obscurity, but each contributes mightily to the adaptation process that puts all those pages on the screen.
SYLVIE RABINEAU AND JILL GILLETT co-heads, WME book to film/TV
Say the words “book to screen” in Hollywood and you’re likely to hear “Sylvie Rabineau” in response. Rabineau was co-founder, with Jill Gillett, of the boutique literary agency Rabineau Wachter Sanford & Gillett. William Morris Endeavor acquired RSWG in 2016, making Rabineau and Gillett co-heads of the monster agency’s division of book to film/TV. Today the two represent inimitable voices like Roxane Gay, Tom Perrotta and Elizabeth Strout, fusing taste and commerce with such zeitgeist-leading adaptations as “The Girl on the Train,” “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” “The Leftovers” and “Olive Kitteridge.”
“By joining WME, we brought our clients more access to filmmakers, showrunners, staffing opportunities and non-scripted opportunities.” Rabineau says. Gillett adds, “The entire structure of the traditional book-tofilm deal has changed. Our authors are now at the cutting edge of those deals, in the selling of their work and as producers.”
Long at the forefront of deals that attach authors to their own adaptations, Rabineau still has to fight for that deal point. “My least favorite aspect of the job,” she says, “is having to remind people that any project based on a book would not exist without it, and that the author should be treated with the same respect as the rest of the creative team.”
Rabineau’s next big deal might well involve a client she’s had for years: Amanda Gorman, the 22-year-old poet who inspired a nation — along with hundreds of phone calls from Hollywood
— with her inauguration reading on Jan. 20.
CHRIS LUPO agent, Ver ve Talent Agency
“I go after material others aren’t looking at,” says Chris Lupo, who joined Verve after a decade scouting titles for publishers. “There’s nothing more rewarding than finding that gem of an idea buried in a novel that’s been discounted. Proving my competitors wrong is a lot of fun as well.”
It was no accident that Lupo landed at Verve. Founded in 2010, the agency was among the first to sign the 2019 Writers Guild’s Code of Conduct, putting more information, power and money into writers’ hands. While 7,000 screenwriters were firing their agents at CAA, UTA, WME and other agencies for refusing to sign the code, Verve was expanding its support of #PayUpHollywood and other industry equity movements — along with its client list and its influence.
“Authors are the creators of their stories,” Lupo says. “They should decide how those stories are adapted. Then we can plan the best route to market, whether that’s submitting directly to producers and studios or sharing the material with screenwriters and filmmakers who align creatively.”
As an example, Lupo cites Verve’s recent six-figure sale to Lionsgate of “All This Time,” a YA novel by Mikki Daughtry and Rachael Lippincott, authors of “Five Feet Apart,” which sold 1 million copies as a book and grossed $92 million as a film.
“Three things have changed in the past 10 years: the rise of television, the advent of streaming and the success of adaptations . ... Consumers’ expectations are constantly shifting, but the market for quality writing will always be there.”
RACHEL MILLER founding partner, Haven Entertainment
In this business, it pays to start young. Rachel Miller optioned her first novel, “Deadly Games,” at age 16, using $500 of her bat mitzvah money. At 20 she landed an entry-level job at Endeavor. At 23, she co-founded Tom Sawyer Entertainment with her 29-year-old bestie. When the 2008 writers’ strike hit, Tom Sawyer pivoted to producing books in-house, which it then sold to publishers before adapting them for the screen. In 2012, Tom Sawyer merged with Picture Machine to become Haven Entertainment.
“I love to find new writers and help them break into the industry so they can reach the biggest possible audience,” says Miller, who also founded the nonprofit Film2Future with the mission of “empowering underserved teenagers through professional filmmaking, content creation, education and internships.”
Haven manages 200 authors, TV writers, actors and filmmakers. “I have a much smaller list than I would in a big agency,” Miller says. “I don’t have to make decisions by committee. I can focus on the clients and projects that excite me.”
One such project was born when a friend told Miller a horrifying story from her past. “My friend didn’t want to write it herself,” Miller says. “So I took it to my playwright/TV writer client Daria Polatin. Daria had never written a novel, but she did a killer job on the proposal for a novel called ‘Devil in Ohio’ and we quickly sold the book.” Now it’s with Netflix as a TV show, adapted by Polatin.
“Art has the power to change the world by changing people’s opinions,” says Miller, who credits “Will & Grace” with paving the way for gay marriage. “I believe we’re going to see more diverse, inclusive books adapted by more ‘own voices,’ so the two worlds I love so much — books and Hollywood — will look more like the world we live in.”
MEGAN REID director of literary scouting and development, FX
Most book scouts are literary yentas, hoping to make a match, having little control over the result. Not so Megan Reid. A scout (and author) “embedded” at FX Networks, she feeds a curated stream of books, magazine articles and podcasts to writers and directors who have contracts with FX.
Before joining the network in 2017, Reid was an editor at Simon & Schuster, then a foreign scout in a small agency. “My favorite part of every job I’ve had, including this one, is advocating for writers I love,” Reid says. “I don’t have to send a memo about a book, then never find out what happened. As an executive, I find stories that need to be told, and might not otherwise be told, and I decide what happens.”
One such deal is the pending adaptation of Octavia Butler’s beloved 1979 novel, “Kindred” — which, Reid points out, was published before she was born. “The book was brought to us by Butler’s agency,” Reid explains. She and FX developed the project from there. “Now we’re talking about potential directors. I love seeing it through every step of the process.”
Reid is one of the first Black women to break through in book scouting. “That has its challenges, but also its rewards,” she says. “I’m on the most diverse team I’ve ever been on.”
She acknowledges that especially since the George Floyd protests, “I’ve never been more tired than I am. The onus always falls on people of color to figure out what to do about race. Still, I feel lucky to be in the kind of job where I can say things don’t work the way I want them to. I have a seat at the table. I can change how television will look in three years. That’s a very empowering position to be in.”
NATHAN MILLER partner, Manage-ment
“Anyone who tells you they know what’s going to sell — that they know exactly what viewers want — is lying,” says Nathan Miller. “If you’re looking at what the trends are today, you’re behind the times.”
Miller has set novels up at Sony, CBS, Lionsgate and Paramount and sold book- and short story-based TV shows to Showtime, Amazon, Hulu and Netflix. He also represents writers who have staffed “The Chi,” “GLOW,” “Tokyo Vice,”
Fifteen projects originating as books are already in the awards race, from “Emma” to “Bridgerton.” Our critics chime in on how well they worked.
SERIES
BRIDGERTON
Netflix
> Created by Chris Van Dusen
Based on: The Bridgerton Family Series by Julia Quinn, 2000-2013
Verdict: Jane Austen purists may take offense, but the first Netflix project from executive producer Shonda Rhimes isn’t for them: In terms of both sexual mores and race relations, this exquisitely silly romp about the upscale marriage market in Regency London flips historical convention on its head in addictive and thoroughly modern fashion. — Lorraine Ali
THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT
HBO Max
> Created by Steve Yockey
Based on: “The Flight Attendant” by Chris Bohjalian, 2018
Verdict: In this nail-biting, note-perfect dark comedy/thriller based on Bohjalian’s page-turner, the friendly skies turn entertainingly deadly when boozy airline attendant Cassie (Kaley Cuoco) falls into bed with a passenger (Michiel Huisman) during a stopover in Bangkok — only to wake up next to his bloodied corpse and find herself hopelessly tangled in a murder mystery with global implications. — L.A.
THE GOOD LORD BIRD
Showtime
> Created by Ethan Hawke and Mark Richard
Based on: “The Good Lord Bird” by James McBride, 2013
Verdict: This earthy, slyly funny, utterly righteous portrait of abolitionist John Brown, played by Ethan Hawke, matches McBride’s raucous novel and animates its sense of urgency: We’ve rarely needed Brown the prophet more than we do now. — Matt Brennan
I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE
HBO
> Created by Derek Cianfrance
Based on: “I Know This Much Is True” by Wally Lamb, 1998
Verdict: Harrowing, profound and liable to be too heavy for the casual viewer, the miniseries adaptation of Lamb’s bestseller, starring Mark Ruffalo as twins Dominick and Thomas Birdsey, deals with debilitating mental illness, bleak childhoods, identity and, ultimately, sibling devotion. — L.A.
LOVECRAFT COUNTRY
HBO
> Created by Misha Green
Based on: “Lovecraft Country” by Matt Ruff, 2016
Verdict: Hot-button issues like racist policing collide with monsters and evil cults in this drama cleverly adapted from a novel that was itself a revision of a sort, bringing a pointed perspective to the writings of problematic pulp author H.P. Lovecraft — and genre fiction in general. — Greg Braxton
NORMAL PEOPLE
Hulu
> Created by Lenny Abrahamson and Sally Rooney
Based on: “Normal People” by Sally Rooney, 2018
Verdict: This aching portrait of the on-again, off-again relationship between two teenagers from different backgrounds — exquisitely portrayed by Paul Mescal (Connell) and Daisy Edgar-Jones (Marianne) — captured the essence of Rooney’s rendering of the palpitations of young love and the torment of growing into oneself. Even Connell’s chain, briefly mentioned in the novel, left a lasting impression with viewers. — Yvonne Villarreal
THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT
Netflix
> Created by Scott Frank and Allan Scott
Based on: “The Queen’s Gambit” by Walter Tevis, 1983
Verdict: Scott Frank’s enthralling adaptation of Tevis’ novel of chess and addiction is unusually faithful to the page, incorporating nearly all its dialogue and remaining thoughtful as regards its prodigy heroine — vividly played by Isla Johnston (young) and Anya Taylor-Joy (less young) — even as it revels in the sparkly pleasures of period television. — Robert Lloyd
THE UNDOING HBO
> Created by David E. Kelley
Based on: “You Should Have Known” by Jean Hanff Korelitz, 2014
Verdict: That Korelitz’s publishers have retitled her novel after this heavily retooled, glamorous, vacuous, very popular Nicole Kidman/Hugh Grant vehicle is apt enough, given how faintly the miniseries echoes the novel’s themes and action, trading any interest in the effect of a bad husband on female friendships for humdrum erotic thriller tropes marshaled to beef up a serial He Done It. — R.L.
MOVIES EMMA
Focus Features
> Written by Eleanor Catton, directed by Autumn de Wilde
Based on: “Emma” by Jane Austen, 1815
Verdict: While it doesn’t match
“Clueless” for sheer wit and invention, Catton’s delightfully arch adaptation gets a lot of fresh comic mileage out of well-worn material — and benefits, like all “Emma” adaptations, from Austen’s most ingeniously constructed story. — Justin Chang
HILLBILLY ELEGY
Netflix
> Written by Vanessa Taylor, directed by Ron Howard
Based on: “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis” by J.D. Vance, 2016
Verdict: Mercifully, the book’s simplistic analysis of white grievance politics has been largely excised; unfortunately, so has any sense of lived-in authenticity in this flailing adaptation of Vance’s polarizing memoir. — J.C.
THE MAURITANIAN
STXfilms
> Written by M.B. Traven, directed by Kevin Macdonald
Based on: “Guantanamo Diary” by Mohamedou Ould Slahi
Verdict: Slahi’s harrowing 2015 memoir about his wrongful 14-year detention in Guantanamo Bay loses its first-person perspective and moral focus in this dodgy legal thriller, although Tahar Rahim’s fine performance as Slahi offers some compensations. — J.C.
THE MIDNIGHT SKY
Netflix
> Written by Mark L. Smith, directed by George Clooney
Based on: “Good Morning, Midnight” by Lily Brooks-Dalton, 2016
Verdict: Tethered to the book by a pair of trite narrative devices yet bereft of its beautiful language and much of the deeper musing on loss, grief and existence, the movie feels like a missed opportunity. — Kevin Crust
NEWS OF THE WORLD
Universal Pictures
> Written by Paul Greengrass and Luke Davies, directed by Greengrass
Based on: “News of the World” by Paulette Jiles, 2016
Verdict: The stolid but absorbing Tom Hanks-starring western about two unlikely traveling companions remains largely faithful to its source though some of the more violent, controversial edges have been sanded away. — J.C.
NOMADLAND
Searchlight Pictures
> Written and directed by Chloé Zhao
Based on: “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century” by Jessica Bruder, 2017
Verdict: Although it features several of Bruder’s interview subjects playing versions of themselves, Zhao’s masterly interweaving of fiction and truth is less an adaptation of the book than a freeflowing conversation with it. — J.C.
THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD
Focus Features
> Written and directed by Armando Iannucci
Based on: “The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery...” by Charles Dickens, 1849-1850
Verdict: The color-blind casting is what most distinguishes this umpteenth ultra-truncated adaptation of Dickens’ personal favorite novel, but for all its whimsical Iannuccian chaos, the material is as recognizable — and charming — as ever.