Wattpad Webtoon Studios has announced that it is developing three new film and TV projects based on IP from its social storytelling platform Wattpad and its digital comic platform Webtoon.
Screenwriter, playwright and novelist Gabriel Bergmoser has been tapped to adapt A. Rasen’s popular webcomic GremoryLand for film, with Wattpad Webtoon set to produce alongside Roy Lee’s Vertigo Entertainment.
The studio will also develop Wattpad books Unholy Matrimony (by @xxinlove) and I’m a Gay Wizard (by V.S. Santoni) for TV, with Alyson Weaver Nicholas (Snap’s Two Sides) penning the script for the former project, and Price Peterson (The CW’s Legacies) adapting the latter.
Currently boasting more than 20 million reads on Webtoon, GremoryLand follows six friends who are reunited as the sole visitors of a new horror theme park, promising an experience as unique as it is terrifying. They soon realize that the horrors of the park are not only deadly and related to their pasts, but that they must face their individual fears in order to survive.
Unholy Matrimony has more than 39.6 million reads on Wattpad and follows the heirs of two vineyard dynasties who are forced into an arranged marriage in order to save their namesake businesses. They must put aside their evolving disdain for one another and present a united front in order to take down scheming rivals and bury family secrets.
Then, there’s I’m a Gay Wizard, which has upwards of 678,000 reads on Wattpad and follows two perpetually bullied LGBTIAQ+ teens, Latinx and gay Johnny, and his trans best friend Allison. After performing a pretend vengeance spell using a book from a strip-mall curio shop, they find themselves suddenly whisked away to the mysterious Marduk Institute, a phantasmagoric utopia that harbors a dark secret behind its magical walls.
“GremoryLand, Unholy Matrimony, and I’m a Gay Wizard are incredible stories with millions of fans all over the world on WEBTOON and Wattpad. Each of these projects represents new energy and voices in established genres,” said Aron Levitz, who serves as President of Wattpad Webtoon Studios. “A. Rasen, @xxinlove, and V.S. Santoni have built massive global fandoms with their work, and we’re thrilled to work with Vertigo and an amazing group of screenwriters to help these stories find new audiences on screens everywhere.”
“At Vertigo, we’re always on the hunt for new and exciting IP in the horror space. GremoryLand immediately caught our attention as a property with the potential to introduce an immersive horror experience driven by compelling characters and a world we hope will terrify audiences,” added Vertigo Entertainment’s Director of Development, Aengus McLoone. “We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Wattpad WEBTOON Studios and usher in the next generation of horror stories.”
Each of Wattpad Webtoon’s new projects will be produced by Levitz, Eric Lehrman, Lindsey Weems Ramey and Taylor Grant. All three will be self-financed through the Wattpad Webtoon Studios Development Fund launched in May of 2020, as the company’s first move into film and TV financing.
GremoryLand, Unholy Matrimony, and I’m a Gay Wizard are just the latest projects on a slate of 100+ from Wattpad Webtoon that are in development and production around the world. The studio first launched following the June merger of Wattpad and Webtoon’s studio divisions, which saw their parent company, Naver, commit $100 million to development and production financing.
