Ex-Netflix exec and producer launch database for book adaptations

A US producer and former Netflix executive are embarking on a joint venture, 'TaleFlick', which offers a library of searchable books for adaptation across film, TV and digital media.

Producer Uri Singer of Passage Pictures and George Berry, previously of Netflix and Apple, said the database “bridges the gap between the written word on paper and the spoken word on screen by paving the way for storytellers around the world to shop their content to the entertainment industry”.

The platform is for all content including published books and short stories and the submission fee is $88 (£67) to cover curation, which makes the content available for one year on the website. Authors will retain all rights to their books, but will give the Los Angeles-based company the chance to bid on their dramatic rights and present their stories to studios and production companies.

Singer and Berry have invested in a new technology which apparently uses the NLP (Natural Language Processing) machine learning algorithm which categorises and classifies content, curating each piece with an algorithm paired with human expertise. The company aims to become the most reliable source of supply to a growing industry constantly demanding original content. 

Berry began his career in London and whilst he was Netflix’s content operations manager for Europe and India, he apparently “saw an opportunity to offer the studios a better way to access original content for their ever-growing audiences”, according to a TaleFlick spokesperson. 

Meanwhile, Singer is founder and c.e.o. of Passage Pictures, a production company based in Los Angeles, which develops, produces and finances projects “with commercial appeal”. He has recently handled various book to screen projects which are in different stages of development, including The King of Oil by Daniel Ammann, which is now attached to John Krasinski’s Sunday Night Productions with Matt Damon to star.

Singer said: "As a producer, I’ve learned the importance of finding strong content and having a reliable source that can provide it. TaleFlick allows Studios and Producers, like myself, to find stories that otherwise would not have had a chance to be seen.”

Berry said: “By applying the right balance of technology and human experience, TaleFlick can find those stories that are the ‘needles in the haystack, both efficiently and at scale.”

According to research commissioned by the Publishers Association and produced by Frontier Economics, film adaptations of books grossed 44% more at the UK box office and a full 53% more worldwide than films from original screenplays.

For more information, visit: taleflick.com.