'The Marriage Bargain' Movie From 20th Sets Laura Lekkos As Writer

EXCLUSIVE: 20th Century Studios has snapped up film rights to The Marriage Bargain, Jennifer Probst‘s bestselling romantic comedy novel published by Entangled Publishing, enlisting Laura Lekkos (Relationship Goals) to adapt the screenplay.

The project is notable in that it represents the first outing for Premeditated Productions, the production arm of Entangled Publishing co-founded by producer Sherryl Clark (The Gorge) and Entangled CEO and Publisher Liz Pelletier, outside of a first-look deal with Amazon MGM Studios whose productivity recently led to a five-year extension, as we first reported.

A breakout title for Probst, which spent 26 weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list, has sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide, and has been translated into multiple languages, The Marriage Bargain was one of the top 10 bestselling books of 2012. The story follows a bookstore owner who enters a marriage of convenience with a billionaire to save her family home, only to find the strict terms of their arrangement in jeopardy when real feelings between them emerge.

DoD Cayla Tyne will oversee for Premeditated, with Sarah Shepard, SVP of Production, overseeing for 20th.

One of the writers on Relationship Goals, Amazon MGM’s rom-com starring Kelly Rowland and Cliff “Method Man” Smith, which released on Prime Video on February 4, Lekkos also wrote Somewhere Only We Know, a feature adaptation of Maureen Goo’s novel set up at Netflix, and has multiple other projects in development, including Daring to Live, a true-story dramedy based on Sheri Hunter’s memoir for Amazon. Her debut novel, All the Little Ways, was bought by Simon and Schuster’s Gallery Books and will be released in June. She is represented by Gersh and Felker Toczek Suddleson.

Probst is the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of over 50 titles in contemporary romance fiction, whose works have sold over two million copies and been translated in over a dozen international territories. She is repped by Kevan Lyon of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

With The Marriage Bargain, Premeditated adds to a robust film development slate that includes #1 New York Times bestselling fantasy Dragon Cursed, #1 New York Times bestselling romantasy Shield of Sparrows, time-travel comedy Repeat After Me, rom-com 69 Million Things I Hate About You, and thriller Survive. All of those projects are set up at Amazon MGM under Premeditated’s first-look deal. In television, they’re producing several mega-selling book franchise adaptations, including Fourth Wing and Lux at Amazon MGM Studios and Assistant to the Villain at Legendary. Premeditated and Entangled are repped by IAG and Caitlin DiMotta at TroyGould PC.