EXCLUSIVE: The Hideaway Entertainment and Fictionz have partnered to launch the podcast series Blue Is for Nightmares, based on Laurie Faria Stolarz’s bestselling YA witchcraft book series, and will also develop the books for TV.
Each of of the books in Stolarz’s series—White is for Magic, Silver is for Secrets, Red is for Remembrance and Black is for Beginnings—follow the adventures of Stacey Brown, a young witch with psychic powers. In the Blue is for Nightmares podcast, Stacey (Meghan Rienks) has terrifying nightmares that come true, and uses the magic handed down from previous generations to investigate murders and other crimes and disappearances, all while dealing with the drama of being a teen at a prestigious boarding school. (Listen to the trailer here.) Stephanie Wu (Two Year Man) adapted the scripts, with Andres Rosende (Jane Anonymous) directing. The podcast’s first episode will premiere June 30th exclusively to Fictionz subscribers on Apple Podcasts and on the Fictionz iOS and Android App.
The Blue Is for Nightmares TV series will be adapted by Debbie Moon, who created the YA fantasy series Wolfblood and served as its showrunner for all five seasons. Moon will also serve as showrunner on the upcoming project, with The Hideaway’s Jonathan Gray, Matthew Rhodes, and Kristy Grisham exec producing alongside Fictionz co-founders, Kendall Morgan and Greg Lawrance. Blue Is for Nightmares marks The Hideaway’s first podcast production and will serve as Fictionz’s first television production. Producers on the series will be looking for a distribution partner this summer.
“Being a part of seeing my characters come to life in the Blues series has been an amazing experience,” said Stolarz. “I’m so lucky to have this opportunity to work with so many talented people to illustrate the stories on both a podcast and a television series. I am so excited to work with the team at The Hideaway Entertainment, Stephanie and Andres, Fictionz, and Meghan.”
“The opportunity to partner with Fictionz on Blue is for Nightmares as a podcast and then as a TV series is something we’ve been eager to do and we couldn’t be more excited that it happened as a result of Laurie’s incredible book series,” said The Hideaway Entertainment’s CEO, Jonathan Gray and President Matthew Rhodes. “Witchcraft fans and scripted podcast fans are in for a real treat.”
Added Fictionz’s Lawrence: “We are excited for Meghan to voice the magical Stacey character. She is a talented actress with a huge influencer network that we think is the perfect fit to launch the podcast and have a new audience discover Stacey’s life and how she learns to adapt to her magic and navigate her love life.”
Stolarz is also the author of the Touch series, the Dark House series, Bleed, Project 17, Shutter, Jane Anonymous and its companion novel,The Last Secret You’ll Ever Keep. Her titles have been named on numerous awards lists and translated into 30 languages, with more than a million books sold worldwide.
Fictionz is a podcast platform and studio that provides immersive, seralized, fictional narrative podcasts from your favorite women writers—in every genre, for global audiences. Other podcasts from the company include The Break Up Diet, starring Judy Greer and Michael Trevino; The Yellow Wallpaper, starring Jeanine Mason and Usman Ally; From The Neck Up, starring Grace Wethor; So You Want to Be Honeypot, starring Sierra Swartz; and Two Year Man, starring Armando Riesco.
The Hideaway Entertainment is an entertainment media company, developing, producing and financing films, television and digital content, which entrepreneur and CEO Gray founded in 2017, with veteran producer Rhodes as President. The company is producing MGM’s action-drama Combat Control, directed by Sam Hargrave (Extraction franchise) and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, as well as the drama Freedom Ride, based on first-person accounts of the original freedom riders, including the late civil rights icon and U.S. Congressman, John Lewis. In addition, The Hideaway is producing Escape with screenwriters and producers J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay, the creator-EPs behind Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and has tapped James Watkins (AMC+’s upcoming The Ipcress File) to direct. The company is also producing a genre-bending comedy entitled Sleep Train with screenwriter Andrew Nunnelly, and has launched its television division with the limited series For Those I Loved, based on Martin Gray and Max Gallo’s book of the same name.
Stolarz is represented by The Gotham Group; Rienks by Global Artists Agency and Paraluman Media; Rosende by Paraluman Media; and Moon by Sugar23 and CAA.
