EXCLUSIVE: Greg Berlanti, the prolific producer behind Riverdale, The Flash, Supergirl and mny other shows, has inked a deal to adapt the New York Times best-selling young-adult novel The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue for HBO Max.
Deadline can reveal that Berlanti Productions’ adaptation of Mackenzi Lee’s period romantic adventure could be one of the four movies the company has signed up to make for HBO Max, which launches in May. The first, UNpregnant, recently wrapped production.
Welsh writer Matthew Barry is attached to The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue. He has written and produced two seasons of the Netflix drama Chilling Adventures of Sabrina after working on British shows including EastEnders and Death in Paradise. Berlanti and Sarah Schechter will serve as producers, while Michael McGrath is the executive producer.
The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue follows Henry Monty Montague, a bisexual British Lord who embarks on a grand tour of 18th century Europe with his best friend and secret crush, Percy. But Montague’s final blowout before he is expected to take over the family estate turns into a harrowing manhunt as the roguish aristocrat’s reckless and hedonistic decisions take an ugly turn.
The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue was published in 2017 by HarperCollins and Katherine Tegen Books, and Lee followed the book up last year with The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy. Another in the series, The Gentleman’s Guide to Getting Lucky, will be published in December, with a fourth, The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks, slated for 2020.
Berlanti signed a $300M overall development and production deal with Warner Bros. Television last year, which included a commitment to make shows for all platforms, including broadcast, premium and basic cable and streaming, via Warner Bros. Television, Warner Horizon Scripted Television or the group’s digital studio, Blue Ribbon Content.
Berlanti is expanding his screen interpretations of the DC Comics Universe for HBO Max with a Strange Adventures and a Green Lantern show, the latter of which he promised would be the “biggest DC show ever made.” Another of his projects for HBO Max includes Equal, a four-part docuseries chronicling landmark events and the forgotten heroes of the LGBTQ+ movement.