London Book Fair Attracts Hollywood Producers and Execs as Adaptation Craze Continues: ‘IP Supercharges the Conversation’

variety.com:

K.J. Yossman This year’s Oscars were as much a celebration of books as they were cinema. Five of the 10 best picture nominees were based on books, and three of those – “Oppenheimer,” “Poor Things” and “The Zone of Interest” – took home the most statues overall.

Even the winner for best animated picture, Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron,” was loosely inspired by a 1937 novel Miyazaki had read as a child.

Which is why many of those partying in L.A. on Sunday night boarded planes across the Atlantic days later bound for the London Book Fair, which kicked off yesterday and runs through the end of the week, in search of their next Oscar-contending project. “It feels like there’s an influx of film and television executives, studio executives, producers etc., all coming into town,” Jason Richman, co-head of media rights at UTA, tells Variety.

With TV also wild about adaptations – some of the biggest shows in the past few months have included “Shōgun,” “One Day,” “Fool Me Once” and “Slow Horses,” all of which began as novels – the London Book Fair is fast on its way to becoming the new must-stop market for the screen industry.