Michael Jai White’s Jaigantic Studios Buys Hawthorne Books and Literary Arts (EXCLUSIVE)

Jaigantic Studios has acquired Hawthorne Books and Literary Arts. The imprint will target manuscripts with the goal of finding projects potential for film and TV content.

“This is a marriage made in heaven,” said Rhonda Hughes, the publisher at Hawthorne.

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The company, which is headquartered in Portland, Ore., has optioned several projects in the past. That includes optioning the rights to Monica Drake’s “Clown Girl” to Kristen Wiig, and optioning Lidia Yuknavitch’s “The Chronology of Water: A Memoir” to Scott Free, which has tapped Kristen Stewart to adapt and direct. Hawthorne has also published Academy Award nominated screenwriter Anthony McCarten’s novel, “Brilliance.” McCarten wrote the scripts for “The Theory of Everything” and “The Two Popes.”

Hughes will remain in her current role and will continue buying literary fiction and creative nonfiction. Initially, Hawthorne will publish eight books per year.

Hawthorne’s first book to be released as an imprint of Jaigantic will be “North Star Rising: A Novel About the Life of Frederick Douglass,” by Sidney Morrison, which the company hopes to turn into a mini-series. Also scheduled is a debut sci-fi, “The Inevitable” by Daniel Hope and “No Safe Harbor” by Robert Shemeld. Both books will be adapted into series.

Jaigantic was launched in 2021 by Michael Jai White, whose work as an an actor, director and writer includes “Arrow,” “The Dark Knight,” “Spawn” and “Mortal Kombat: Legacy.”

“I’ve been working with Rhonda for over a decade and as we started to build out Jaigantic’s content division, this was a no-brainer. Rhonda has a reputation for award-winning debut novelists, an eye for diversity, inclusion, and impeccable taste. We are thrilled that Rhonda and Hawthorne are joining our Jaigantic family,” said Mayne Berke, COO and Producer at Jaigantic Studios.

Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed.

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