Drama gold rush is a literary boon
The rush to create new original drama is seeing a boom in literary adaptations with a steady rise in new shows based on novels or comics green lit for production or development over the past eight months. While long a source of production inspiration, the industry's seemingly insatiable appetite for new material and the entrance of ever more players into the SVoD original production space is proving a boon for writers and publishers. In February 2019 alone, Amazon and Netflix started on 12 literary adaptations between them, with Netflix having a Spanish literary bonanza during the month, developing Carlos Montero's school teacher thriller El Desorden que Dejas; super powers graphic novel El Vecino; Mexican murder mystery Los Corruptores based on the Jorge Zepeda Patterson book; astrology-themed drama Memorias de Idhun from Laura Gallego's novel; and female-author buddy movie Valeria, based on the book by Christiane F. SVoD players have undoubtedly been a key driver of literary adaptation —Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Viaplay, iQiYi, Youku and YouTube, among others, have all used literary sources as the base for recent TV projects. Indeed, despite the fewer number of SVoD players compared to traditional linear commissioners, SVoD original production accounts for one third of all literary adaptations over the past year and a half—perhaps driven to the material by the attractiveness of a ready-made fanbase.
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