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‘Greenland’ & ‘The Night House’ Outfit Anton Taps Meredith Dawson For “Raunch-Com” ‘The Roommate’ Based On Hit Debut Novel

Andreas Wiseman
·3-min read

EXCLUSIVE: After optioning the screen rights, Greenland and The Night House producer Anton has tapped rising U.S. scribe Meredith Dawson to adapt Rosie Danan’s debut novel The Roommate, which has been getting strong notices ahead of general release next month.

Described by The New York Times last week as a “warmly funny and gorgeously sexy porn-star romance”, the novel follows two unlikely roommates – one straight-laced, the other an adult film star – who get more than they bargained for when the sparks that fly between them inspire a plan to launch a sexy, feminist start-up that risks their hearts and the wrath of a porn empire.

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The book won the 2019 Romance Writers of America Golden Heart award for Best Contemporary Romance, and will be published by Berkley (US) and Piatkus/Little Brown (UK) on September 15.

Producer-financier Anton is producing, and The Gotham Group (The Maze Runner series) is executive-producing. The deal was negotiated by Anton’s John Zois who will oversee the project, and the Gotham Group’s Dillon Asher. The book was sourced for Anton by its creative executive Holly Hubsher.

Dawson’s 2018 Blacklist script Spark is currently being developed by Amazon Studios and Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, and she is set to make her directorial debut on her script When Carrie Met Michael and Other People, which Paul Feig is producing at Universal. She previously wrote on Mindy Kaling show Champions, Hulu’s adaptation of Four Weddings And A Funeral and the second season of Apple’s & Fox’s Central Park. She is currently writing for Netflix’s Jane Lynch/Cyndi Lauper project.

Dawson said: “As a devoted fan of the romantic comedy genre, I was wildly impressed how Rosie knocked it out of the park with her witty sense of humor, crystal clear characters and seat-gripping sexual tension. As Josh and Clara fight their own bubbling temptations, you’ll fight yours to put the book down. It was impossible to read this without the air conditioner on full blast. The “raunch-com” has arrived and I am HERE for it. I feel very lucky to be working with the genius minds at Gotham and Anton and look forward to making them blush.”

Danan’s second book, The Intimacy Experiment is set in the same world as The Roommate, and is due to be released April, 2021.

Danan is represented by The Gotham Group on behalf of the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. Dawson is repped by Felker, Toczek, Suddleson, Abramson LLP.

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