Georgina Capel forms TV unit with former ITV boss

Georgina Capel Associates (GCA) has formed a new film and television development unit, which will work closely with Simon Shaps Ltd, a company run by the former executive editor at ITV.

Miami Pictures Ltd will meet the growing demand from TV and film companies for material based on books.

Shaps (pictured with Capel) will work closely with the team at GCA Ltd to help steer the development of the company's fiction and non-fiction titles for TV and film.

Shaps was a senior executive at ITV for more than 20 years. He was appointed as Director of Television after a number of years in TV production and on the merger of Carlton and Granada was appointed to run ITV's global TV production business. He is also the former chair of the Royal Television Society and chaired the National Film and Television School for four years.

Capel said: “Miami Pictures has already made a very important addition to the range of services that we can offer to authors. There has been a huge surge of interest in our authors, particularly in our leading historians, since companies such as Amazon and Netflix have entered the market for making series suitable for their streaming services. And Simon Shaps brings with him both a wealth of experience in the media, and an evergreen enthusiasm for the books we represent.”

Shaps added: “Georgina has built up an outstanding list of authors, across fiction and non-fiction and I am really excited to bring those authors’ work to new audiences. There has never been a better moment to realise the potential in the books and authors GCA Ltd has nurtured.”

A number of books are already in development with TV and film companies, in the UK and US, including Black diamonds: The Rise and Fall of an English Dynasty by Catherine Bailey to Daybreak Pictures, Blood on the Altar: In Search of A Serial Killer by Tobias Jones to Cosmopolitan Pictures, Only Ever Yours, by Louise O’Neill to Killer Content and her second novel Asking For It to Bandit Television.