Wattpad WEBTOON Studios Doubles Down on Spanish-Language Content, Adding Two Massive YA Adaptations to its Growing Global Development Fund

Alex Mírez’s 105-million read, Perfectos Mentirosos, to be produced out of Mexico with José Miguel Núñez, Anna Grajales & Paola Mazlum, adapting to series

Best-selling YA author, Javier Ruescas, to pen the script for Flor M. Salvador’s Boulevard film franchise, produced in Spain

Wattpad WEBTOON Studios, the fan-driven global entertainment and publishing arm for WEBTOON and Wattpad, announced today it is adapting Perfectos Mentirosos and Boulevard, two massively popular Spanish-language original stories from Wattpad. Alex Mírez’s 105-million read phenomenon, Perfectos Mentirosos, will be adapted as a series, and Flor M. Salvador’s 75-million read Boulevard will be developed as a feature film. The projects will be the first Spanish-language projects self-financed through Wattpad WEBTOON Studios’ Development Fund - created to strategically underwrite and fast-track development for incredible WEBTOON and Wattpad content with a built-in audience. 

The new projects join the company’s growing slate of more than 100 TV and film projects in development and production around the world, signaling a major move into Spanish-language content for Wattpad WEBTOON Studios. Spanish-language content is the second largest category on Wattpad, and one of the fastest-growing languages on WEBTOON, which is the #1 digital comic platform in Latin America. Together, the platforms reach millions of readers in Spanish-speaking countries. 

Produced out of Mexico, YA drama Perfectos Mentirosos--from Wattpad author Alex Mírez--will be adapted as a series by José Miguel Núñez and writing team Anna Grajales & Paola Mazlum. Núñez joins the project following stints as head writer on the Netflix Original Series, Rebelde, and the series Pinches Momias (Univision) in which he serves as co-creator and head writer. His writing credits also include La Reina del Sur (Telemundo) and El Vato (NBC Universo), among others. Grajales & Mazlum’s credits include the upcoming feature film NADA DE ESTO FUE UN ERROR, produced by Cinema 226 and Videocine. Grajales & Mazlum are currently writing a teen series for Netflix, and developing shows for Fabula, the Oscar-winning company of Pablo Larraín, as well as feature films for WarnerMedia and Sony.

Perfectos Mentirosos, is part of a three-book series published by Penguin Random House in Spain, where it has been a two-time best-seller and reprinted 17 times. 

Boulevard, a four-part series of romance novels from Mexican Wattpad author, Flor M. Salvador, will be adapted by best-selling YA author Javier Ruescas. Ruescas previous credits include writing the upcoming Warner Bros. and Atresmedia Cine feature film, Somos Fuego, and Yo soy el que soy, a series in development based on the biography of violinist Aaron Lee. Boulevard, will be produced in Spain, where it will also be published on February 24th, by Wattpad’s Spanish-language publishing partner, Penguin Random House Spain. 

Wattpad WEBTOON Studios’ Aron Levitz, Lindsey Weems Ramey, Taylor Grant, and Carla Zeller will produce the projects.  

“Perfectos Mentirosos and Boulevard are massively popular Wattpad stories with millions of reads and have deeply engaged fans in Spanish language markets around the world,” said Aron Levitz, President of Wattpad WEBTOON Studios. “Alex, Flor, and an entire new generation of Spanish-language creators are building entire fandoms for their work on Wattpad and WEBTOON. By investing in these projects and many more from our platforms, we’re going to give fans a new way to experience their stories from creators across the Spanish-speaking world. This is just the beginning of Wattpad WEBTOON Studios investment in Spanish-language content.”

Perfectos Mentirosos follows Jude, a grant student at an Ivy League school where social status is as important as academic prowess. Upon settling in, she finds herself among the company of an irresistible trio of Brothers - Aegean, Adrik, and Aleixandre Cash -  who call the shots on campus with their rich kid games. Jude decides to spend 90 days as Aegean Cash’s “chosen companion”- one on a list of ten women meant to be played by the brothers. But Jude has other plans - she’s going to tear them down from the inside.

Boulevard centers around the forbidden romance between high school students Halsey Weigel and Luke Howland. A troublemaker who also struggles from addiction, Halsey knows she should stay away from Luke. But she is inexplicably drawn to him, seeing beyond the damaged exterior everyone else is quick to judge. She wants to rescue a self proclaimed misfit, he wants to resist. Does their love stand a chance?

The announcement  follows the Spanish Netflix Original Film sensation  A través de mi ventana (Through My Window), from Wattpad author and influencer, Ariana Godoy. Executive produced by Wattpad WEBTOON Studios, the film reached #1 in 22 regions on Netflix and a Top 10 in 85 regions, generating more than 33 million viewing hours in its first weekend on Netflix. Netflix greenlit two additional sequels in the franchise less than two weeks after the film premiered on the service. A través de mi ventana has more than 350 million reads on Wattpad and the English novel was published by Wattpad Books in January 2022.   

Wattpad WEBTOON Studios’ Development Fund launched in 2020, as the company’s first move to finance development for select TV and film projects. The fund includes previously announced projects A. Rasen’s nightmare-filled WEBTOON hit Gremoryland, adapted by screenwriter, award-winning playwright, and novelist, Gabriel Bergmoser (The Hunted) with Roy Lee’s Vertigo Entertainment attached; Deanna Cameron’s What Happened That Night, adapted by Academy Award-nominated Children of Men screenwriter David Arata; T.L. Bodine’s  The Hound, adapted by screenwriter Angela LaManna (The Haunting of Bly Manor, Marvel’s The Punisher series); V.S. Santoni’s genre-bending I’m a Gay Wizard, adapted by Legacies (The CW) and Heathers (Paramount Network) writer, Price Peterson; and @xxinlove’s Unholy Matrimony, adapted by Alyson Weaver Nicholas (Two Sides/Snapchat). A $100 million commitment from parent company Naver in June 2021 added production financing capabilities for Wattpad WEBTOON Studios.