Defending champions Evelyn Waugh and Langston Hughes launch a West Coast charm offensive and acquire the Somerset Maugham estate

EXCLUSIVE: The company that owns the rights to the literary estates of Langston Hughes and Evelyn Waugh is on a West Coast charm offensive and has taken over the estate of Somerset Maugham.

International Literary Properties (ILP) launched in 2019 but has so far focused on the UK and the East Coast. But UK and Europe managing director Hilary Strong will have numerous meetings with Los Angeles producers in the coming weeks as ILP looks to secure deals to adapt books by its 50 writers for television, film and other areas.

“As we continue to acquire significant assets, we need to expand our relationships with the American production community and showrunners,” Strong told Deadline. “We’re going to make sure people get the message so we can build producer networks in Hollywood, similar to what we have on the East Coast and the UK.”

Some meetings will be with executives outside of ILP’s usual wheelhouse, Strong added, who expressed a desire to meet with “key producers who are in different places.”

The company has already signed around two dozen option and development deals, including a first-look deal with BBC Studios, a film and TV partnership with Artists, Writers & Artisans, and collaborations with Red Arrow Studios International and Playground for adaptations of Georges Simenon’s novel inspector Maigret Novels.

According to Emma Bell, vice president of creative and brand, West Coast ILP will replace jazz poet and novelist Hughes’ old catalog, along with artists such as Eric Ambler, who inspired John le Carré, Double damage Author James M. Cain and The stranger next to me Author Ann Rule.

“It feels modern and has the feeling of spending a moment with the readers,” says Bell, adding that the commissioners are currently more interested in “comedies or dramas with humor and pace” than dystopian works.

Somerset Maugham

The executives, who will both be based in LA, announced that ILP will acquire the rights to the estate of Pastries and beer Author Maugham. His last work that was adapted was from 2006 The colorful veil, It became a film starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts.

Strong described Maugham, who died nearly 60 years ago, as a “very colorful character who had as much influence in the United States as he had in Britain” and added: “I would like to see someone make a film about him.”

ILP was due to travel to LA earlier this year but was hampered by the two labor strikes, which Strong said could lead to a period of buyer caution that could be a boon for sellers of big-name IP.

“What we’re seeing from afar is more attention being paid to the underlying source material,” she added. “But as people become more risk averse, it becomes more important that literary intellectual property is a known quantity with a beginning, a middle and an end. People keep looking for this source material to give the commissioners confidence.”

“The greatest resource in the world”

The former Agatha Christie Ltd boss has been with ILP almost since its inception and her remit was extended to Europe in 2021 as major deals were struck for the estates of Roald Dahl and others.

Since then, the company has been aggressive in its acquisitions, with Strong communicating a vision to be “the world’s leading literary resource for producers across all platforms.”

ILP tends to acquire controlling interests in estates, but doesn’t always acquire 100%, Strong explains, and the company works closely with authors’ families.

“If you are a child or grandchild who has inherited an estate and this is not your world, one of the things we offer is estate administration and support,” she added. “Even when we buy 100%, we always try to include key family members to ensure we reflect the tone, mission and DNA of the author.”

Bell, a former development director at Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s Stolen Picture, said her team is focused on being “proactive owners” by both identifying opportunities for adaptation and managing writers’ brands. “We have the privileged task of putting ourselves in the shoes of these individual writers and their work,” she added. “I go from thinking, ‘What would I want as a development producer?'”