EXCLUSIVE: Canada’s Thunderbird Entertainment has optioned New York Times bestseller Mad Honey.
The Vancouver-based producer is planning to turn Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan’s novel into a premium TV series.
The novel focuses on themes of young love, teen angst and parental grief, interwoven with murder and high-intensity courtroom drama. The story follows a mother, who relocates to her sleepy New Hampshire hometown to take over the family beekeeping business, whose son is suspected of killing his girlfriend.
“Jodi and Jennifer wrote such an incredibly moving story,” said Matthew Berkowitz, Thunderbird Entertainment President and Chief Creative Officer. “We believe that narratives on this level can truly make a significant impact on the empathy we have for others and how people view their own actions as we co-exist in the world.”
He added that Mad Honey was “exactly the kind of IP we’re looking for as we build out our premium scripted business, and we are thankful to the team working on this project for bringing it to fruition.”
Thunderbird CEO Jennifer Twiner McCarron, Berkowitz and Tuatara Media principal Barbara Wall will executive produce Mad Honey on behalf of Thunderbird, along with Picoult and Boylan.
The deal is the first since Thunderbird launched an LA scripted hub under SVP of Scripted Content Hillary Zwick Turner, as we revealed earlier this month. Development and production is being run from the hub, which is Thunderbird’s second in the U.S., along with looking after talent partnerships and eyeing scripted projects.
Thunderbird’s scripted projects include Reginald the Vampire for Syfy, which is now shooting a second season; Kim’s Convenience spin-off Strays for CBC, also into Season 2; and Boot Camp, a film adaptation of the hugely popular Wattpad story of the same name. It’s also working up a slate of scripted projects with former Lionsgate exec Wall’s Tuatara.
Picoult has authored 28 novels and sold more than 40 million books worldwide. Her most popular include My Sister’s Keeper, The Pact and Plain Truth, which have previously been adapted for the big and small screens. Journalist and author Boylan has written 18 books and her memoir She’s Not There was one of the first bestselling work by a transgender American. Mad Honey was a New York Times bestseller for six months and was named among the best books of the year by several outlets.
“I could not be happier with the passion and commitment that Thunderbird brings to our story,” said Picoult. “We know that seeing our novel translated into a series will only continue the conversations that we need to be having about authenticity, identity, and gender.”
“Mad Honey is a story that Jodi and I are very proud of,” said Boylan. “We hope this tale will provide people with more than a little suspense, as well as possibly shining a light for them on some of the issues currently at large in our culture. We’re so excited that the story is in such good hands.”
Picoult is represented by Laura Gross and WME. Boylan is represented by CAA.