Best-Seller to Box-Office held a cocktail at the Literary Adaption Pavilion yesterday, welcoming producers and screenwriters to hear about the initiative. Founded by Nathalie and Laure Kniazeff five years ago, the company's new online database has been helping connect producers with viable books for film or television adaptation for two years.
The inspiration for Best-Seller to Box-Office, according to co-founder Laure Kniazeff, came from her own experience as a producer having difficulties finding books to adapt. She noticed there were no professional tools available to help producers. "We created [Best-Seller to Box-Office] to help make things easier; to have a big catalog of books available to adapt. Nothing too famous so it is not too expensive to adapt," says Kniazeff.
Books entered into the catalog are classified by genre. Marine Da Silva [below], who has been working with the database since February as a translator, notes that the most successful genre in the database currently are crime stories and thrillers.
Annmarie Bell of Azure Productions [below] is one of the producers who arrived to the pavilion interested in the service. Up to this point, she noted that without a professional tool like Kniazeff's, her most reliable source of discovering new literature for adaption is personal recemmendations. In the current climate where about 40% of films under consideration for production are literary adaptions, online databases like Best-Seller to Box-Office seem to be on the right track.
Best-Seller to Box-Office will be holding pitching sessions at the Literary Adaption Pavilion through Tuesday the 20th.
