Evelyn Waugh & Langston Hughes Rightsholder Launches West Coast Charm Offensive & Snaps Up Estate Of Somerset Maugham
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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.
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“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’s Inspector Maigret novels.
On the West Coast, ILP will be pushing the back catalog of jazz poet and novelist Hughes, according to SVP Creative and Brand Emma Bell, along with the likes of Eric Ambler, who inspired John le Carré, Double Indemnity writer James M. Cain and The Stranger Beside Me scribe Ann Rule.
“These feel modern and like they are having a moment with readers,” said Bell, who added that commissioners are currently interested in “comedy or drama with wit and pace” rather than dystopian works.
Somerset Maugham
The execs, who will both be in LA, revealed that ILP has snapped up the rights to the estate of Cakes and Ale author Maugham. His last work to be adapted was 2006’s The Painted Veil, which was made into a movie starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts.
Strong described Maugham, who died nearly 60 years ago, as a “highly colorful character who had as much influence in the States as he did in the UK,” adding: “I’d love to see someone make a film about him.”
ILP had been due to travel to LA earlier in the year but was stymied by the dual labor strikes, which Strong believes could lead to a period of buyer caution that may be a boon for sellers of known IP.
“What we’re seeing from a distance is more thought being put into spend on underlying source material,” she added. “But when people are more risk averse, the importance of having literary IP that is a known quantity with a beginning, middle and end becomes even more important. Over and over again, people are looking for that source material to give commissioners confidence.”
“World’s greatest source”
The former Agatha Christie Ltd boss has been with ILP almost from its inception and had her brief expanded to cover Europe in 2021, as huge deals for the estates of the likes of Roald Dahl were going down.
The company has since been aggressive with its acquisitions and Strong communicated a vision “to be the world’s greatest literary source for producers on all platforms.”
ILP tends to buy majority stakes in estates but doesn’t always take 100%, Strong explained, and the company works closely with the families of the authors.
“If you’re a child or grandchild who inherited an estate and it’s not your world then one of the things we offer is legacy management and support,” she added. “Even when we buy 100% we always try to involve key family members to make sure we reflect the tone, mission and DNA of the author.”
Bell, a former development chief at Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s Stolen Picture, said her team focuses on being “proactive owners” by both spotting opportunities for adaptations and managing author’s brands. “We have the privileged job of getting under the skin of these individual authors and their work,” she added. “I come from the position of thinking, ‘What would I have liked as a development producer?’.”
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