EXCLUSIVE: Searchlight Pictures is reuniting with Marielle Heller and Leah Holzer‘s Defiant by Nature production shingle for an adaptation of bestselling novel The Glitch.
Defiant by Nature will produce with Perry Mason and Interview With the Vampire scribe Eleanor Burgess adapting from the Leeanne Slade novel.
The Glitch follows Grace Monroe who after a failed birthday wish sends her fives years into the past, gets a rare chance to rewrite her story – this time, with her heart and career intact. But as she tries to outsmart fate and avoid the heartbreak she knows is coming, she discovers that some love stories are meant to happen, no matter the timeline.
SVP of Production Taylor Friedman is overseeing the project for Searchlight Pictures, reporting to Heads of Production and Development Katie Goodson-Thomas and DanTram Nguyen.
Defiant’s first release was a filmed version of the Pulitzer Prize winning and Tony nominated play What The Constitution Means To Me, written by and starring Heidi Schreck and directed by Heller, for which she received a DGA nomination. Most recently, the company produced Nightbitch for Searchlight Pictures, written and directed by Heller and starring Amy Adams, based on the novel of the same name by Rachel Yoder. Heller’s 2018 drama for Searchlight, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, earned three Oscar noms including Melissa McCarthy for Best Actress, Richard E. Grant for Best Supporting Actor, and Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty’s for Best Adapted Screenplay. Defiant by Nature’s mission is to illuminate stories that speak to the heart- especially from women and non-binary creators. The shingle is focused on projects that uplift, inspire, challenge and entertain. The company recently renewed their first look television deal with CBS Studios.
On the feature side, Burgess is writing None of this is True for Netflix with Modern Magic and Something Happy Productions producing. Previously, she wrote The Wish for Universal, based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks. Before that, Burgess finished a rewrite for Paramount of the Bee Gees movie and wrote Hold for Bad Robot. She is currently the supervising producer on Little House on the Prairie for Netflix. Her other tv credits include Interview with the Vampire at AMC, Apple Tv’s WeCrashed, and HBO’s Perry Mason. Burgess is repped by Entertainment 360, CAA, and Robert Szymanski at Eclipse Law.
Slade’s first two romantic novels – The Rebound and Told You So – were No. 1 bestsellers, with the former named one of Audible’s best books of 2023. Her third novel The Glitch was a #1 bestseller in both the UK and the US. The author is repped by Untitled Entertainment and Rowan Lawton at The Soho Agency.
Defiant by Nature is repped by UTA, P.J. Shapiro and Erin Einstein of Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.
