Latest news with #AlloyEntertainment
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Emma Roberts, Luke Wilson & Heather Graham To Star In Rom-Com ‘Getting Rid Of Matthew' From ‘Purple Hearts' & ‘Gossip Girl' Outfit Alloy; Architect Launching For Cannes
EXCLUSIVE: Emma Roberts (Holidate), Luke Wilson (Legally Blonde) and Heather Graham (Boogie Nights) are aboard for comedy romance Getting Rid of Matthew, adapted by writer-director Hernán Jiménez (Love Hard) from Jane Fallon's novel. Alloy Entertainment (Purple Hearts) have developed the script and are producing. Architect have launched worldwide sales ahead of Cannes. Pic is due to shoot in October 2025, in Toronto, Canada. More from Deadline Will Poulter, Kit Connor & Manu Ríos To Star In Medieval Zombie Horror 'Rapture' For Elevation, 2AM & Brookstreet; HanWay Launching Sales For Cannes Jeremy Allen White, Mandy Patinkin & Isabella Rossellini Set For Jeremiah Zagar's 'The Painted Bride' As Charades, New Europe & WME Independent Board Sales - Cannes Market Angelina Jolie To Star In 'Anxious People' For 'A Man Called Otto' & 'World War Z' Director Marc Forster, Hope Studios & Black Bear - Cannes Market Hot Project Roberts stars as Helen, 'a young woman who follows her heart: it's led her to the bright lights of New York and to her dream job. And now it leads to Matthew (Luke Wilson): her brilliant, charismatic, impossibly confident boss. But Matthew's also married: to the long-suffering Sophie (Heather Graham), and so the ensuing affair must remain a secret. 'Helen thinks confronting Matthew will solve the problem, but when he turns up at her doorstep – dishevelled, crying, and with all his worldly possessions – having dumped Sophie, Helen realises she's stuck living with a middle-aged baby, a self-obsessed man with arrested development who's spectacularly falling into a mid-life crisis, and who has a hell of a lot of bad habits.' Costa Rican filmmaker Hernán Jiménez adapted the script and will direct. The film follows his Netflix romcom Love Hard, starring Nina Dobrev. Jiménez's credits include the screenplay for Amazon's A Million Miles Away, starring Michael Pena. Leslie Morgenstein and Elysa Koplovitz Dutton will produce through Alloy Entertainment. Former TV producer Fallon has written twelve novels, including her debut Getting Rid of Matthew which was published in 2007 and swiftly became a UK top 10 bestseller. It has since been translated into more than 20 languages. Architect's Calum Gray said: 'Getting Rid of Matthew is a delicious, subversive and riotously funny comedy about the dangers of getting what you asked for. Anchored by three beloved comedy performers, the film will be an escapist Saturday night treat, and a repeat watch for modern global audiences.' Jiménez commented: 'I read Jane's novel in a single-sitting – it has such a livewire energy to it, and she completely inhabits the chaotic, loveable and mischievous Helen. Audiences are going to fall in love with Emma in the role, and delight in her increasingly manic attempts to ditch Matthew!' Alloy has produced three films in a row for Netflix, including the Adam Sandler comedy You Are SO Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, Sabrina Carpenter's Work It! and Sofia Carson's Purple Hearts, along with box office genre hit Tarot for Sony. On the TV side, Alloy has produced Netflix's You, starring Penn Badgley, both iterations of Gossip Girl, the Pretty Little Liars franchise and The Vampire Diaries, and its successful spinoffs The Originals and Legacies. Best of Deadline Brad Pitt's Apple 'F1' Movie: Everything We Know So Far Everything We Know About 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Season 2 So Far 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More
See - Sada Elbalad
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- See - Sada Elbalad
L.J. Smith, "The Vampire Diaries" Author, Dies at 66
Yara Sameh L.J. Smith, the writer of 'The Vampire Diaries' books that was adapted into a popular television series on The CW, died March 8 at the age of 66. Smith's sister Judy Clifford confirmed the death to The New York Times . Smith had a long bout with an autoimmune disease and died in Walnut Creek, Calif. Smith was born September 4, 1958, as Lisa Jane Smith, in Florida and grew up in California. She studied experimental psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara and initially worked as a special education and kindergarten teacher. The first novel Smith published was 'The Night of the Solstice,' a fantasy book that she had begun as a high school student. It led to a deal with Alloy Entertainment to write 'The Vampire Diaries.' The series started with three books published in 1991, followed by the fourth in 1992. The TV adaptation debuted in 2009 and continued until 2017. Nina Dobrev starred as Elena Gilbert, who caught the eye of vampires Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) and Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley). Although Smith had only received a small advance for the first few books in 'The Vampire Diaries' series, she had another deal with Alloy Entertainment in the 2000s to extend it with a trilogy addition. She was dismissed in 2011, and the rest of the series was ghostwritten. Smith later turned to writing fan fiction from the 'Vampire Diaries' world as a way to further what she'd previously built. Divola told The New York Times that Smith was 'very hurt and indignant' when a ghostwriter took over the series. Smith also penned the young adult series 'Dark Visions' and 'Night World' as well as 'The Secret Circle' (the basis of another but short-lived CW adaptation). The writer also finished a novel called 'Lullaby' and two more 'Night World' books before her death. Smith is survived by her partner, sister, nephew, niece and grandnephew. read more New Tourism Route To Launch in Old Cairo Ahmed El Sakka-Led Play 'Sayidati Al Jamila' to Be Staged in KSA on Dec. 6 Mandy Moore Joins Season 2 of "Dr. Death" Anthology Series Don't Miss These Movies at 44th Cairo Int'l Film Festival Today Amr Diab to Headline KSA's MDLBEAST Soundstorm 2022 Festival Arts & Culture Mai Omar Stuns in Latest Instagram Photos Arts & Culture "The Flash" to End with Season 9 Arts & Culture Ministry of Culture Organizes four day Children's Film Festival Arts & Culture Canadian PM wishes Muslims Eid-al-Adha News Egypt confirms denial of airspace access to US B-52 bombers News Ayat Khaddoura's Final Video Captures Bombardment of Beit Lahia News Australia Fines Telegram $600,000 Over Terrorism, Child Abuse Content Lifestyle Pistachio and Raspberry Cheesecake Domes Recipe Videos & Features Bouchra Dahlab Crowned Miss Arab World 2025 .. Reem Ganzoury Wins Miss Arab Africa Title (VIDEO) News Ireland Replaces Former Israeli Embassy with Palestinian Museum News Israeli PM Diagnosed with Stage 3 Prostate Cancer Arts & Culture Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's $4.7M LA Home Burglarized Lifestyle Maguy Farah Reveals 2025 Expectations for Pisces News Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly Inaugurates Two Indian Companies
Express Tribune
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
L.J. Smith, 'Vampire Diaries' author, dies at 66
L.J. Smith, the visionary behind The Vampire Diaries novels, passed away on March 8 at the age of 66 in Walnut Creek, California. Her partner, Julie Divola, confirmed Smith's death to The New York Times following a prolonged battle with a rare autoimmune disease. Smith's passing was also announced on her official website. Born Lisa Jane Smith on September 4, 1958, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, she grew up in Villa Park, California. Inspired by her literary heroes J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, she adopted the initials L.J. for her pen name. After earning a degree in experimental psychology from UC Santa Barbara in 1982, Smith worked as a teacher before turning to writing full-time. She began her literary journey with The Night of the Solstice, written while she was still in school. The novel drew the attention of Alloy Entertainment, leading to a pivotal moment in her career—being selected to write The Vampire Diaries series. Originally published in 1991, the books followed high schooler Elena Gilbert and her entanglement with vampire brothers Damon and Stefan Salvatore. The novels gained a devoted following, and in 2009, the story was adapted into a successful CW television show starring Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhalder, and Paul Wesley. The series became a cornerstone of the vampire media surge in the late 2000s, alongside Twilight and True Blood. Despite being removed from The Vampire Diaries franchise due to a work-for-hire agreement, Smith later reconnected with her characters through fan fiction in the 2010s. Her agent, John Silbersack, shared that Smith continued to write until her final days, describing her as 'fiercely dedicated.' Smith, who authored over 24 published works and left three unpublished at her death, is survived by her partner, Julie Divola. The couple did not have children.
Boston Globe
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
L.J. Smith, author of ‘Vampire Diaries' book series, dies at 66
Ms. Smith produced more than two dozen published books, with three more unpublished works completed before her death. Readers bought millions of copies of her work, beginning with the fantasy novel 'The Night of the Solstice.' It was labeled for readers aged 8 to 12, and Ms. Smith started it in high school. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The book, published in 1987, sold only about 5,000 copies but intrigued an editor at Alloy Entertainment, a book packaging and production company that has since been acquired by Warner Bros. Such companies devise ideas for books, find authors for them, and then sell them to publishers. Advertisement At least in the publishing and entertainment world, vampires were thriving in the light of day. Anne Rice's gothic "Interview With the Vampire" (1976) inspired a movie, starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, and later a short-lived television series. Alloy Entertainment sought a young adult version of supernatural romance and signed Ms. Smith to write 'The Vampire Diaries,' a series centered on a love triangle involving a popular high school girl named Elena Gilbert and a pair of vampire brothers, Stefan and Damon Salvatore. The first three books, written for HarperCollins, were published in 1991, and a fourth was released in 1992. But Ms. Smith — whose first agent was her typist, who had never represented a client — told The Wall Street Journal that she had written the trilogy for an advance of only a few thousand dollars without realizing that it was work for hire, meaning she did not own the copyright or the characters. Advertisement She kept writing other young adult series until the late 1990s, when her career entered a tumultuous period. For almost a decade, she went dormant, developing writer's block while tending to family trauma: Her then brother-in-law developed Stage 4 melanoma (he recovered), and her mother died of lung cancer. 'While I was immersed in this, I had no inspiration at all,' Ms. Smith said in a Q&A with readers on her website. 'There were no stories in my head.' During her fallow period, though, vampire books soared in popularity, lifted on the success of Stephenie Meyer's 'Twilight' series. By 2007, sales of 'The Vampire Diaries' had increased, and Ms. Smith was contracted to continue the series by writing a new trilogy for Alloy Entertainment, for which she was entitled to half the royalties. In 2009, "The Vampire Diaries" were adapted into a dramatic television series that lasted for eight seasons on the CW Network. Popular among younger audiences, the show used various musical genres to explored topics like romance and morality and helped popularize a grunge and leather-jacket fashion look. By 2014, the 'Vampire Diaries' book series had sold more than 5 million copies, but Ms. Smith was no longer writing the authorized version: Alloy Entertainment fired her in 2011 over what its president and founder, Leslie Morgenstein, told The Wall Street Journal were creative differences. A ghostwriter and then an author using the pen name Aubrey Clark were brought in to complete the final six books in the series. Ms. Smith said in interviews that she had believed that Alloy and HarperCollins wanted shorter books more closely associated with the TV series. They continued to put Ms. Smith's name prominently on the cover of the books as the series' creator. Advertisement She told Salt Lake magazine in 2012 that her dismissal had helped to "mutilate" and ultimately destroy her creation "limb by limb." Morgenstein did not respond to a request for comment. Eventually, Ms. Smith found an outlet to reclaim her characters — fan fiction, which book lovers have long written and posted, spooling out their own amateur versions of stories and characters even though they did not own the intellectual property and it was often not strictly legal. In 2013, Amazon created Kindle Worlds, an online service that gave writers of fan fiction permission to write about certain licensed properties, including Alloy's "Vampire Diaries" series, and to earn money for their ventures. In 2014, Ms. Smith became the rare celebrated author to produce fan fiction as a way to recoup characters and story arcs she had lost, publishing a novel and novella in an informal continuation of the 'Vampire Diaries.' (Kindle Worlds was discontinued in 2018.) Her partner, Divola, a San Francisco tax lawyer, said Ms. Smith had turned to fan fiction after being left 'very hurt and indignant' at being replaced by a ghostwriter. "When you're a writer, you feel like your characters and your worlds, those are yours," Divola said in an interview. "You've given birth to them; they're like your children. I would put it akin to a custody battle." Lisa Jane Smith was born on Sept. 4, 1958, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Her family soon moved to Southern California. She grew up in Villa Park, where her interest in magic, fantasy, and the supernatural blossomed amid the neighboring orange groves. Advertisement Her father, Glenn C. Smith, had been a star end on the Clemson University football team. He became an engineer and was a partner in a company that made metal connector plates for floor and roof trusses. He died in 2017. Her mother, Kathryn (Check) Smith, who died in 2007, was a flight attendant for Pan American Airways and a teacher before raising Lisa and her younger sister, Judy. In addition to her sister, Clifford, and Divola, Ms. Smith is survived by a niece, a nephew and a grandnephew. Ms. Smith often said she was inspired to become a writer as a child in kindergarten or first grade, when a teacher 'praised a horrible poem I'd written.' Her imagination was stoked by many things, her sister said, including tall tales their father told of keeping a tiger in the trunk of his car and of being a Martian stuck on earth. Once, while babysitting at a house with oddly-shaped mirrors, Ms. Smith got the notion that they might be portals to a parallel world. When her sister was teased in middle school, Ms. Smith comforted her with humorous stories about how her antagonists would get their due, displaying empathy and a sense of justice that would become a hallmark of her writing about strong female characters. Ms. Smith received a Bachelor of Arts degree in experimental psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1982 and taught kindergarten and special education for several years before becoming a full-time writer. She went by L.J. Smith in her writing to sound more authorial and to honor two of her favorite novelists, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. In addition to 'The Vampire Diaries,' Ms. Smith wrote three other popular series for young adults: 'Night World,' 'Dark Visions,' and 'The Secret Circle,' which also became a series on the CW, lasting one season. Advertisement An indefatigable writer, Ms. Smith took her laptop with her as she went in and out of hospitals over the past decade. Her agent during that time, John Silbersack, said that before she died Ms. Smith had completed two books to conclude the 'Night World' series and an adult novel, 'Lullaby,' about a postapocalyptic world. "She had been quite ill, but despite the difficulties and the pain, she was fiercely dedicated to continuing to write," Silbersack said. "She wanted to get it right, to be quite perfect." This article originally appeared in
New York Times
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
L.J. Smith, Author of ‘Vampire Diaries' Book Series, Dies at 66
L.J. Smith, an author of young adult novels best known for 'The Vampire Diaries' series, which became a hit television drama, and for repossessing her characters by writing fan fiction after she was fired and replaced by a ghostwriter, died on March 8 in Walnut Creek, Calif. She was 66. Her partner, Julie Divola, and her sister, Judy Clifford, said Ms. Smith died in a hospital after enduring the cascading effects of a rare autoimmune disease for a decade. She lived in nearby Danville, Calif. The Wall Street Journal in 2014 wrote about Ms. Smith's clever career reclamation, calling it 'one of the strangest comebacks in literary history.' Ms. Smith produced more than two dozen published books, with three more unpublished works completed before her death. Readers bought millions of copies of her work, beginning with the fantasy novel 'The Night of the Solstice.' It was labeled for readers aged 8 to 12, and Ms. Smith started it in high school. The book, published in 1987, sold only about 5,000 copies but intrigued an editor at Alloy Entertainment, a book packaging and production company that has since been acquired by Warner Brothers. Such companies devise ideas for books, find authors for them and then sell them to publishers. At least in the publishing and entertainment world, vampires were thriving in the light of day. Anne Rice's gothic 'Interview With the Vampire' (1976) inspired a movie, starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, and later a short-lived television series. Alloy Entertainment sought a young adult version of supernatural romance and signed Ms. Smith to write 'The Vampire Diaries,' a series centered on a love triangle involving a popular high school girl named Elena Gilbert and a pair of vampire brothers, Stefan and Damon Salvatore. The first three books, written for HarperCollins, were published in 1991, and a fourth was released in 1992. But Ms. Smith — whose first agent was her typist, who had never represented a client — told The Wall Street Journal that she had written the trilogy for an advance of only a few thousand dollars without realizing that it was work for hire, meaning she did not own the copyright or the characters. She kept writing other young adult series until the late 1990s, when her career entered a tumultuous period. For almost a decade, she went dormant, developing writer's block while tending to family trauma: Her then brother-in-law developed Stage 4 melanoma (he recovered), and her mother died of lung cancer. 'While I was immersed in this, I had no inspiration at all,' Ms. Smith said in a Q&A with readers on her website. 'There were no stories in my head.' During her fallow period, though, vampire books soared in popularity, lifted on the success of Stephenie Meyer's 'Twilight' series. By 2007, sales of 'The Vampire Diaries' had increased, and Ms. Smith was contracted to continue the series by writing a new trilogy for Alloy Entertainment, for which she was entitled to half the royalties. In 2009, 'The Vampire Diaries' were adapted into a dramatic television series that lasted for eight seasons on the CW Network. Popular among younger audiences, the show used various musical genres to explored topics like romance and morality and helped popularize a grunge and leather-jacket fashion look. By 2014, the 'Vampire Diaries' book series had sold more than five million copies, but Ms. Smith was no longer writing the authorized version: Alloy Entertainment fired her in 2011 over what its president and founder, Leslie Morgenstein, told The Wall Street Journal were creative differences. A ghostwriter and then an author using the pen name Aubrey Clark were brought in to complete the final six books in the series. Ms. Smith said in interviews that she had believed that Alloy and HarperCollins wanted shorter books more closely associated with the TV series. They continued to put Ms. Smith's name prominently on the cover of the books as the series' creator. She told Salt Lake magazine in 2012 that her dismissal had helped to 'mutilate' and ultimately destroy her creation 'limb by limb.' Mr. Morgenstein, did not respond to a request for comment. Eventually, Ms. Smith found an outlet to reclaim her characters — fan fiction, which book lovers have long written and posted, spooling out their own amateur versions of stories and characters even though they did not own the intellectual property and it was often not strictly legal. In 2013, Amazon created Kindle Worlds, an online service that gave writers of fan fiction permission to write about certain licensed properties, including Alloy's 'Vampire Diaries' series, and to earn money for their ventures. In 2014, Ms. Smith became the rare celebrated author to produce fan fiction as a way to recoup characters and story arcs she had lost, publishing a novel and novella in an informal continuation of the 'Vampire Diaries.' (Kindle Worlds was discontinued in 2018). Her partner, Ms. Divola, a San Francisco tax lawyer, said Ms. Smith had turned to fan fiction after being left 'very hurt and indignant' at being replaced by a ghostwriter. 'When you're a writer, you feel like your characters and your worlds, those are yours,' Ms. Divola said in an interview. 'You've given birth to them; they're like your children. I would put it akin to a custody battle.' Lisa Jane Smith was born on Sept. 4, 1958, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Her family soon moved to Southern California. She grew up in Villa Park, where her interest in magic, fantasy and the supernatural blossomed amid the neighboring orange groves. Her father, Glenn C. Smith, had been a star end on the Clemson University football team. He became an engineer and was a partner in a company that made metal connector plates for floor and roof trusses. He died in 2017. Her mother, Kathryn (Check) Smith, who died in 2007, was a flight attendant for Pan American Airways and a teacher before raising Lisa and her younger sister, Judy. In addition to her sister, Ms. Clifford, and Ms. Divola, Ms. Smith is survived by a niece, a nephew and a grand nephew. Ms. Smith often said she was inspired to become a writer as a child in kindergarten or first grade, when a teacher 'praised a horrible poem I'd written.' Her imagination was stoked by many things, her sister said, including tall tales their father told of keeping a tiger in the trunk of his car and of being a Martian stuck on earth. Once, while babysitting at a house with oddly-shaped mirrors, Ms. Smith got the notion that they might be portals to a parallel world. When her sister was teased in middle school, Ms. Smith comforted her with humorous stories about how her antagonists would get their due, displaying empathy and a sense of justice that would become a hallmark of her writing about strong female characters. Ms. Smith received a Bachelor of Arts degree in experimental psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1982 and taught kindergarten and special education for several years before becoming a full-time writer. She went by L.J. Smith in her writing to sound more authorial and to honor two of her favorite novelists, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. In addition to 'The Vampire Diaries,' Ms. Smith wrote three other popular series for young adults: 'Night World,' 'Dark Visions' and 'The Secret Circle,' which also became a series on the CW, lasting one season. An indefatigable writer, Ms. Smith took her laptop with her as she went in and out of hospitals over the past decade. Her agent during that time, John Silbersack, said that before she died Ms. Smith had completed two books to conclude the 'Night World' series and an adult novel, 'Lullaby,' about a postapocalyptic world. 'She had been quite ill, but despite the difficulties and the pain, she was fiercely dedicated to continuing to write,' Mr. Silbersack said. 'She wanted to get it right, to be quite perfect.'
