Wattpad Studios Appoints PICTURESTART Founder and CEO Erik Feig to Advisory Role
TORONTO - November 30, 2020 – Wattpad, the global multi-platform entertainment company for original stories, today announced that Erik Feig, founder and CEO of PICTURESTART, will be joining the company in an advisory role to propel Wattpad Studios’ continued growth into 2021. The appointment comes on the heels of a banner year for Wattpad, which saw the introduction of Wattpad’s Development Fund, the premiere of After We Collided, the second film in the After series penned by breakout author Anna Todd, and more than 70 TV and film projects in development with partners around the world.
As advisor, Feig will provide industry insight and expertise for a variety of Wattpad Studios projects and verticalization initiatives across TV, film and digital content creation and production.
As the founder and CEO of PICTURESTART, Feig has worked to develop a diverse slate of coming-of-age stories centered on self-discovery -- from Unpregnant, a road-trip comedy recently released on HBO Max to Borderlands with Lionsgate and a GREASE prequel for Paramount. Feig’s previous films have collectively grossed more than $13 billion at the box office and include Academy Award®-winning feats such as La La Land and The Hurt Locker, as well as book adaptations and films geared toward the youth market, such as The Twilight Saga, The Hunger Games series, Divergent series, Perks of Being a Wallflower and many others.
“Erik has an incredible talent for recognizing coming-of-age classics and bringing these stories to life in a way that is honest and authentic to the source material,” said Aron Levitz, Head of Wattpad Studios. “We are excited to welcome him as an advisor to Wattpad Studios and work more closely with him to bring Wattpad hits to new audiences worldwide.”
PICTURESTART previously acquired the film and TV rights to Rachel Meinke’s (@knightsrachel) Wattpad story Along for The Ride, an international smash-hit on Wattpad with more than 27.6 million reads. The story is in adaptation by Tate Hanyok, whose previous work includes Sex Appeal (Austin Film Festival's Comedy Screenplay Award 2018). The story will also be published by Wattpad Books, arriving in stores on June 22, 2021.
“Wattpad offers a treasure trove of incredible stories just waiting to be adapted for new forms,” said Erik Feig, Founder and CEO of PICTURESTART. “As someone who has spent the better part of their career unearthing stories centered on self-discovery, I look forward to working with Wattpad in this new capacity to bring more fresh voices and perspectives to Hollywood.”
Some of Wattpad’s most exciting projects currently in development include a film adaptation of Kate Marchant’s Float with Collective Pictures’ Robbie Amell, who will produce and star in the project; Deanna Cameron’s What Happened That Night, which is being adapted by Academy Award-nominated Children of Men screenwriter David Arata; and T.L. Bodine’s The Hound, which is being penned by Angela LaManna (Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor).
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ABOUT WATTPAD
Wattpad’s vision is to entertain and connect the world through stories. Wattpad’s flagship app is the world’s leading social storytelling platform, home to a community of more than 90 million people who spend over 23 billion minutes a month engaged in original stories. Wattpad’s Story DNA Machine Learning technology allows the company to discover stand-out stories among the nearly one billion uploads that have been written on the platform. Wattpad Studios and Wattpad Books are transforming entertainment and publishing, using data-backed insights to turn Wattpad stories into books, films and TV shows. Wattpad Brand Partnerships help brands build deep engagement with Gen Z consumers. In 2020, Wattpad was recognized as one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company. The company is proudly based in Toronto, Canada. Learn more at company.wattpad.com
About PICTURESTART
PICTURESTART, which focuses on “discovery of voice” content and storytelling, is the media company founded by producer and former studio executive Erik Feig. Although just over a year old, PICTURESTART already has a rich and diverse slate of film projects ranging from UNPREGNANT, a road-trip comedy released on HBO Max on September 10th, to SUMMER LOVIN’, a prequel of GREASE for Paramount; THE FUGITIVE reboot with Albert Hughes directing for Warner Brothers; and BORDERLANDS with Lionsgate as well as near a dozen scripted series set with multiple outlets.