Story-sharing Wattpad gets into movie business
Canada’s Wattpad, the world’s largest online community of amateur writers, is setting up a production studio to turn its stories into movies and television shows in collaboration with Hollywood.
The move is part of Wattpad’s goal of pulling revenue from its user base of 45 million writers and readers.
The Toronto-based firm has also recruited its most popular writers to create branded stories for companies including Coca-Cola Co., AT&T Inc. and Mondelez International Inc. Wattpad is the brand name of WP Technology Inc.
Wattpad’s site features thousands of stories ranging from tales about vampires and boy bands to romantic trysts.
Some of those writers have used it as a platform to win book and movie deals like Anna Todd, whose After fan-fiction novels loosely based on the band One Direction, are being made into a film by Paramount Pictures Corp.
Wattpad Studios, as the initiative is called, will help formalize that process and identify trends popular among its user base, 95 per cent of which is under 30, said Aron Levitz, who is leading the project.
“I can’t tell you what’s hotter: werewolves or vampires,” Levitz said.
Stories already popular on Wattpad have built-in audiences that remove some of the risk of putting money into a new production, he said.
Wattpad has signed deals with United Talent Agency Inc., Paramount and TV5 Network Inc.
Wattpad CEO Allen Lau said the company isn’t yet profitable but the studios project will play a “large role in getting us there.”