Magic Hour Entertainment, Max Siemers and Tanner Anderson’s newly formed production company, is set to adapt romance novel Love and Other Words, The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively learned.
The feature film, based on Christina Lauren’s popular novel of the same name, centers on “childhood best friends turned first loves who reconnect after more than a decade apart and are forced to confront the mysterious heartbreak that took them away from one another,” according to the synopsis. Christina Lauren, the pen name for writers Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings, has become a staple in the romance genre over the last decade for novels including popular titles like The Unhoneymooners and Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating.
“Romance is at its best when it captures something honest about the ways we experience love. Love and Other Words embodies everything we hope to find when bringing a story to the screen — it’s emotionally rich, beautifully written, and authentic to the experience of first love and loss,” Siemers said in a statement. “Christina and Lauren have crafted a romance that is both deeply personal and universally resonant and we’re excited to honor what readers have cherished about this story for years.”
The newly formed production banner will produce and finance development with a focus in feature films that center on romance, modern dating and romantic comedies. The company is also producing the feature Ded, from Carlos López Estrada, and the recently announced Amazon feature Love Theoretically, based on Ali Hazelwood’s novel of the same name. Sofia Alvarez, who collaborated with Siemers on the first two To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before films, is attached to write and direct. An adaptation of Hazelwood’s first novel, The Love Hypothesis, is set to debut on Prime Video this September.
“Max and I are drawn to stories that explore modern relationships through complex, imperfect characters whose experiences feel truthful and deeply relatable,” Anderson said about the company in a statement. Every film we make is built around a fundamental question about dating or love—the kinds of questions
audiences are asking in their own lives today.”
Siemers produced Netflix’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy and was previously the head of film production at ACE Entertainment and EVP of film production at AwesomenessTV. Anderson’s most recent credit was producing the Alan Ritchson-fronted Lionsgate feature Turkey Bowl.
Magic Hour Entertainment is repped by Shaun Gorden at Weintraub Tobin; Christina Lauren is represented by Holly Root of Root Literary, WME and Matthew Sugarman at Weintraub Tobin.
