Wattpad WEBTOON Studios Ramps Up Development Fund with Three New TV and Film Projects from WEBTOON and Wattpad
Roy Lee’s Vertigo Entertainment and Wattpad WEBTOON Studios are teaming up to develop the 20-million read WEBTOON hit GremoryLand
Alyson Weaver Nicholas will pen the script for Unholy Matrimony, and Price Peterson joins the adaptation of I’m a Gay Wizard
TORONTO and LOS ANGELES - October 28, 2021 - Wattpad WEBTOON Studios, the audience-driven IP powerhouse, today announced it is developing three new TV and film projects. Roy Lee’s Vertigo Entertainment is working with the company to adapt A. Rasen’s WEBTOON sensation GremoryLand into a film. @xxinlove’s Unholy Matrimony and V.S. Santoni’s I’m a Gay Wizard will be developed into television series. The projects will be self-financed through the Wattpad WEBTOON Studios Development Fund, and join the company’s growing slate of more than 100 TV and film projects in development and production around the world.
A. Rasen’s nightmare-filled GremoryLand, which has over 20 million reads on WEBTOON, will be adapted by screenwriter, award-winning playwright, and novelist, Gabriel Bergmoser, and produced by Wattpad WEBTOON Studios alongside Roy Lee’s Vertigo Entertainment. Bergmoser joins the project following a two-book deal with Harper Collins. Bergmoser’s novel The Hunted, is being adapted into a feature film for Vertigo Entertainment and Stampede Ventures, and is set to shoot later this year. The project kicks off amid a growing fandom for--and surge in--creative new horror content, as a new generation embraces the macabre on screens and bookshelves.
V.S. Santoni’s genre-bending I’m a Gay Wizard will be adapted by Legacies (The CW) writer, Price Peterson. Peterson’s credits also include two seasons on the Paramount Network series, Heathers. Santoni’s I’m a Gay Wizard has more than 678,000 reads on Wattpad, and is one of the most exciting examples of the growing movement for more diversity in fantasy and genre literature The story was published by Wattpad Books in 2019, followed by Santoni’s second novel, I’m a Gay Wizard in the City of the Nightmare King, which was published by Wattpad Books in 2020.
@xxinlove’s Unholy Matrimony will be adapted for TV by Alyson Weaver Nicholas. Nicholas, who was recently selected to participate in the 2021-22 Warner Brothers Writers Workshop, comes to the project following a two-year stint as Head Writer/Executive Producer on Seasons 2 & 3 of the Snapchat Series, Two Sides. Her credits also include the feature screenplay Mars Generation, which is currently in development with Intrinsic Value Films and earned her the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Screenwriting Award. With more than 39.6 million reads on Wattpad, Unholy Matrimony emerges from the global Wattpad fandom for twist-filled soapy romance.
Wattpad WEBTOON Studios’ Aron Levitz, Eric Lehrman, Lindsey Weems Ramey and Taylor Grant will produce the projects.
“GremoryLand, Unholy Matrimony, and I’m a Gay Wizard are incredible stories with millions of fans all over the world on WEBTOON and Wattpad," said Aron Levitz, President of Wattpad WEBTOON Studios. “Each of these projects represents new energy and voices in established genres. A. Rasen, @xxinlove, and V.S. Santoni have built massive global fandoms with their work, and we’re thrilled to work with Vertigo and an amazing group of screenwriters to help these stories find new audiences on screens everywhere.
“At Vertigo, we’re always on the hunt for new and exciting IP in the horror space” said Aengus McLoone, Director of Development at Vertigo Entertainment. “GremoryLand immediately caught our attention as a property with the potential to introduce an immersive horror experience driven by compelling characters and a world we hope will terrify audiences. We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Wattpad WEBTOON Studios and usher in the next generation of horror stories.”
GremoryLand follows six friends who are reunited as the sole visitors of GremoryLand, a new horror theme park promising an experience as unique as it is terrifying. They soon realize that the horrors of the park are not only deadly and related to their pasts, but that they must face their individual fears in order to survive.
Unholy Matrimony follows the heirs of two vineyard dynasties who are forced into an arranged marriage in order to save their namesake businesses. They must put aside their evolving disdain for one another and present a united front in order to take down scheming rivals and bury family secrets.
I’m a Gay Wizard follows two perpetually bullied LGBTIAQ+ teens, Latinx and gay Johnny, and his trans best friend Allison. After performing a pretend vengeance spell using a book from a strip-mall curio shop, they find themselves suddenly whisked away to the mysterious Marduk Institute, a phantasmagoric utopia that harbors a dark secret behind its magical walls.
Wattpad WEBTOON Studios’ Development Fund launched in May 2020, as the company’s first move to finance development for select TV and film projects. The fund launched with Deanna Cameron’s What Happened That Night, adapted by Academy Award-nominated Children of Men screenwriter David Arata; and T.L. Bodine’s The Hound, adapted by screenwriter Angela LaManna (The Haunting of Bly Manor, Marvel’s The Punisher series). A $100 million dollar commitment from parent company Naver in June 2021 added production financing capabilities for Wattpad WEBTOON Studios.
Wattpad WEBTOON Studios is one of the most innovative new companies in global entertainment. Bringing together the 166 million fans from WEBTOON and Wattpad, along with massive catalogues of new IP from digital comic creators and indie authors, Wattpad WEBTOON Studios creates fan-driven entertainment.
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About Wattpad WEBTOON Studios
Wattpad WEBTOON Studios brings together technology, a diverse new generation of creators, and passionate global fandoms to create data-backed, audience-driven TV shows, films, and books. Leveraging incredible stories and insights from WEBTOON and Wattpad’s combined audience of more than 166 million people, Wattpad WEBTOON Studios has pioneered a bold, global, fan-first approach to entertainment. Wattpad WEBTOON Studios has worked with Netflix, Sony Pictures Television, Crunchyroll, The Jim Henson Company, Vertigo Entertainment, Constantin Film, Penguin Random House, and many other leaders in entertainment and publishing.