Launched in November, London/New York book rights outfit International Literary Properties has acquired 12 literary estates from the UK’s Peters, Fraser + Dunlop. The eight figure deal sees ILP acquire the rights formerly held by the agency for the estates of Georges Simenon, Eric Ambler, Margery Allingham, Edmund Crispin, Dennis Wheatley, Robert Bolt, Richard Hull, George Bellairs, Nicolas Freeling, John Creasey, Michael Innes and Evelyn Waugh.
ILP was set up to acquire the rights in literary estates from those who have inherited them, or from living authors, and will work to exploit those rights through all media platforms including TV, film and theater. Many of the estates acquired under the current deal include the detective, spy and crime genres. Simenon is best known as the creator of French Detective Jules Maigret, for example. Bolt, however, was a playwright who also penned the scripts for Lawrence Of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and A Man For All Seasons. And Waugh was best known for his satires and novels including Decline And Fall, Brideshead Revisited and the Sword Of Honour trilogy.
The deal announced today is the first major slate of acquisitions for the company. Chaired in the UK by CEO Hilary Strong (formerly CEO of the Agatha Christie estate), and Anthology Group founder, Bob Benton, ILP’s New York-headquartered business is led by Scott Hoffman as Group CEO and Ted Green as Executive Chairman. Peters, Fraser + Dunlop will continue to act as literary agent for the twelve estates.
Strong and Benton have principal responsibility for the UK and Europe, focusing on properties with television, theater and film potential alongside CFO Andrew Minkow and Polly Benton, who will head up Business Development.
Strong says, “The acquisition of Peters, Fraser + Dunlop’s interests in these estates is a very important step for us in building the business… This major acquisition plays to the team’s experience and strengths and I am truly excited by the opportunity to nurture these twelve wonderful estates and to find new and exciting ways of telling the great stories that lie within them.”
Hoffman adds,“When we launched ILP, it was our vision to build a portfolio of some of the world’s most important and iconic literary works with an eye toward preserving their creators’ legacies and ensuring they would bring enjoyment to readers for decades to come. This acquisition is a major step toward that goal.”
The deal was brokered by Hilary Strong at ILP.