New Regency snaps up Mason's Sorrow and Bliss screen rights

New Regency, the firm behind Oscar winners such as “Birdman” and “12 Years A Slave”, has landed the film and TV rights to Meg Mason's novel Sorrow and Bliss (W&N) at auction.

Mason's “compulsively readable” novel follows a woman trying to make sense of the mental illness that’s plagued her for decades, “combining the psychological insight of Edward St Aubyn with the sharp humour of Nina Stibbe and the emotional resonance of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine".

The book was published by HarperCollins in Australia and New Zealand in September 2020 and will be published across 21 countries and 16 translation territories including in the US and the UK. The novel will be published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, which won it in a five-way auction last year, on 10th June 2021.

Federico Andornino, W&N editorial director, said: “I have been casting a film adaptation of Sorrow and Bliss in my head ever since the book first landed in my inbox. Laugh-out-loud funny, devastatingly sad and wise – often on the very same page – this is going to be essential viewing.”

New Regency’s upcoming films include Adrian Lyne’s “Deep Water”, starring Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas, and “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie”, a film adaptation of the acclaimed musical starring Richard E Grant, Sharon Horgan, Sarah Lancashire and newcomer Max Harwood.

Yariv Milchan, New Regency’s chairman and c.e.o, said: “Meg is a tremendously talented writer and we are excited to bring Sorrow and Bliss to screen.”