BLINK49 STUDIOS, the recently launched content venture backed by global film and TV studio Endeavor Content, has pre-empted rights to New York Times bestselling author Marissa Stapley’s second novel, Things To Do When It’s Raining, a Canadian epic romantic drama.
Things To Do When It’s Raining, which will be set in Canada’s 1,000 Islands, centers around a woman who is driven by deception and despair to return home from the city to her grandparent’s inn. There, she encounters Gabe, the island-dwelling boy who was her companion as a child and her first love as a teenage girl, but then disappeared from her life without a trace. The ultimately life affirming story unravels the past and braids together three generations of love affairs. Things To Do When It’s Raining published with Simon & Schuster Canada and Graydon House US in 2018 and has since sold in Germany, Norway, the Czech Republic, Italy, Turkey, France, and Slovakia. Interest in the property renewed after Stapley’s 2021 novel Lucky became the first Canadian novel to be selected for Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine Book Club.
“How can you beat an epic romance with a great mystery at the core to unravel? Once we started reading, we couldn’t put it down. Marissa knows how to craft a story that truly resonates, and we are thrilled to be working with her on adapting her novel,” commented Carolyn Newman, Executive Vice President, Global Scripted and Virginia Rankin, Executive Producer, BLINK49 STUDIOS.
“It is such a delight to be working with BLINK49 Studios on this project,” says Stapley. “Carolyn Newman and Virginia Rankin’s passion for a book so dear to my heart is a writer’s dream — and their commitment to and enthusiasm for bringing it to the screen with a focus on the love story, the charming, setting, and the intrigue of secrets is so exciting.”
BLINK49 STUDIOS will serve as the studio for the television adaption. Newman and Rankin will Executive Produce the series on behalf of BLINK49.
Marissa Stapley is the internationally bestselling author of four novels, most recently the New York Times bestselling Lucky (S&S Canada), which was selected as a Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick in December 2021. Her first novel was Mating for Life (published by S&S Canada, Atria US, Rowohlt Germany); then Things to Do When It’s Raining (S&S Canada, Graydon House US, multiple translation territories); followed by The Last Resort (S&S Canada, Graydon House, Allen & Unwin ANZ, and multiple translation territories). The Last Resort was named one of 2019’s Best Beach Reads by Oprah Magazine, New York Post and The Globe and Mail, and shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award (Best Crime Fiction Novel). Stapley recently teamed up with bestselling author Karma Brown (Recipe for a Perfect Wife), as the writing duo Maggie Knox to publish holiday romances, launching with The Holiday Swap, which was an instant bestseller and is already under option for TV (Putnam US/Penguin Canada/Hodder Books).
BLINK49 STUDIOS is a newly launched content venture with Endeavor Content as its anchor investor and lead strategic partner. Focusing heavily on a creative-first approach, BLINK49 STUDIOS is dedicated to partnering with best-in-class writers, creators and producers, as well as aggressively pursuing IP in Canada and throughout the world. Committed to applying significant resources to support new and diverse Canadian voices, the indie studio recently acquired the rights to “Hold My Girl”, the upcoming novel from emerging Canadian author Charlene Carr.
Stapley is represented by Samantha Haywood at the Transatlantic Agency, and the deal was brokered by Samantha Haywood with Transatlantic TV Film agent, Laura Cameron.
