Evelyn Waugh & Langston Hughes Rightsholder Launches West Coast Charm Offensive & Snaps Up Estate Of Somerset Maugham

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: The company that holds rights to the literary estates of Langston Hughes and Evelyn Waugh is heading on a West Coast charm offensive and has snapped up the estate of Somerset Maugham.

International Literary Properties (ILP) launched in 2019 but has so far focused on the UK and East Coast. Over the coming weeks, however, UK and Europe CEO Hilary Strong has numerous meetings in the diary with LA producers as ILP looks to strike deals for adaptations of books from its 50-author roster across TV, film and in other areas. “As we continue to buy considerable assets we need to broaden our relationships with the U.S.

production community and showrunners,” Strong told Deadline. “We are going out to make sure people understand the message so we can start to develop producer networks in Hollywood akin to what we have on the East Coast and in the UK.” Some meetings will be with execs outside of ILP’s regular wheelhouse, Strong added, as she communicated a desire to meet “key producers sitting in different spaces.” The company already has around two dozen option and development agreements in place, including a first-look deal with BBC Studios, a film and TV partnership with Artists, Writers & Artisans and a tie-up with Red Arrow Studios International and Playground for adaptations of Georges Simenon’sInspector novels.

On the West Coast, ILP will be pushing the back catalog of jazz poet and novelist Hughes, according to Vice President Creative and Brand Emma Bell, along with the likes of Eric Ambler, who inspired John le Carré, Double Indemnity writer James M.