Frights, Camera, Action: Turner Joins Forces with Wattpad for First-of-Its-Kind Collaboration
Just over a month ago, we announced an exciting new chapter in the Wattpad story: The launch of Wattpad Studios, a new division that will partner with the entertainment industry to co-produce Wattpad stories for print, film, television, and digital platforms. Today, we’re thrilled to announce that we’ve teamed up with Turner, the global content leader, for a first-of-its-kind partnership where select Wattpad stories will be adapted for the Turner networks. The initial focus of the partnership will be The Tales from the Crypt, the eagerly anticipated horror programming from Turner’s TNT and executive producer M. Night Shyamalan. TNT and Wattpad will invite writers around the world to bring their story ideas forward through contests and other opportunities that will be announced on the official Turner profile on Wattpad and on social media.
“Our partnership with Wattpad is a perfect intersection of content and fan engagement, where fans actually have the chance to directly influence and, in some cases even have their material optioned and developed by our networks,” said Justin Williams, senior vice president of digital ventures for TNT and TBS. “We’re especially excited to kick off our collaboration with a focus on TNT’s Tales from the Crypt horror block, which will tap into Wattpad’s strength in the horror genre”
In addition, Turner will also tap into Wattpad’s sophisticated, data-driven models to help identify fresh new talent and ideas from the Wattpad community. TBS and TNT’s development teams will review stories with an eye toward finding great ideas for television, digital and/or mobile platforms. The networks will also work with Wattpad to share story ideas and other material with the Wattpad community in order to receive immediate feedback from audiences around the world.
With insights on approximately 250 million original story uploads and access to over two million creators, Wattpad is in a unique position to partner with the entertainment industry. “There are many ways we can help the entertainment industry zero-in on new voices and stories with massive, built-in fan-bases. Through our partnership with Turner, Wattpad’s powerful insights, roster of influential writers, and hyper-engaged community of fans will help define the new scary,” said Aron Levitz, head of Wattpad Studios. “The eagerly-anticipated Tales from the Crypt horror block marks the future of television where leading networks source content from fans and build programming together with the audience.”
Wattpad's partner in the entertainment space, United Talent Agency, helped structure the deal with Turner.
If you’d like to learn more about how Wattpad Studios can help you uncover new talent and diverse content, please contact us.