Production underway on feature adaptation of New York Times best-selling romantic comedy This Time Next Year starring Sophie Cookson and Lucien Laviscount, from BlackBox Multimedia and Night Train Media
Protagonist Pictures launches worldwide sales ahead of the Marche du Film
Production has begun on Night Train Media and BlackBox Multimedia’s film adaptation of Sophie Cousens’ sparkling New York Times best-selling novel This Time Next Year, starring Sophie Cookson (Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Gypsy, Red Joan) and Lucien Laviscount (Emily in Paris, Last Sentinel). Nick Moore (Wild Child) the celebrated editor of legendary romantic comedies Love Actually, About A Boy, Notting Hill and The Full Monty directs from a script written by Cousens.
Protagonist Pictures is handling worldwide sales on the highly anticipated adaptation and will introduce to buyers at the upcoming Marche du Film in Cannes.
Minnie (Sophie Cookson) and Quinn (Lucien Laviscount) are born in London on New Year’s Day, in the same hospital, one minute apart. Their lives may have begun together, but their worlds couldn’t be more different. Thirty years later they find themselves thrown together again in the same city on New Year’s Eve. What if fate is trying to unite them? This Time Next Year is an effervescent tale of friendship, romance and two separate lives destined to align.
Producers are Giuliano Papadia for BlackBox Multimedia and Herbert L. Kloiber for Night Train Media, with Erika Hossington also attached as producer on the film. Chiara Cardoso for BlackBox Multimedia and James Copp for Night Train Media serve as executive producers. Sophie Cousens is represented by Sheila David @ Catapult Rights, acting in conjunction with the Darley Anderson Literary Agency.
Lina Marrone, Acting Head of Sales at Protagonist Pictures says “The super talented Sophie and Lucien are the perfect pair to bring Sophie’s uplifting, heartwarming tale to life. With endless charm, biting humor and true kismet, This Time Next Year has all the makings of the next great Brit rom-com with strong global appeal.”
Giuliano Papadia, Producer and CEO of BlackBox Multimedia says “This Time Next Year is both a refreshing update on the romantic comedy genre but also one that pays homage to those that have come before. Sophie Cousens’ novel is an insightful perspective on human nature and relationships, at the heart of which lies the constant question – is destiny making us or are we making our own destiny? We are so pleased to once again be working with our partners at Night Train Media, and the incredible talent of team in front of and behind the camera to bring this story to the screen”.
Herbert L. Kloiber at Night Train Media says “We are delighted to bring together such an incredible creative team both in front and behind the camera. Sophie and Lucien inhabit the roles with such charisma and bring this sparkling story to life, and are surrounded by a supremely talented ensemble of actors doing justice to the wonderful script. Together with our friends at BlackBox Multimedia we are looking forward to this laugh out loud and touching romantic comedy.
Sophie Cousens, Screenwriter and Author of This Time Next Year comments “Writing this book in the evenings after work, I couldn’t have imagined the journey I would go on with these characters. It’s been incredible to see This Time Next Year translated into eighteen languages, become a New York Times bestseller and now, turned into a film. I grew up on the classic romantic comedies of the ’90s and early 2000s – these films are the reason I started writing rom coms, and as such, I always pictured Minnie and Quinn’s story as a film . To witness it come to life with such a talented cast and crew, is an absolute dream come true.”
About BlackBox Multimedia
BlackBox Multimedia is a film and tv production company, founded by industry veteran Guy Avshalom (Lionsgate UK) and led by former FOX executive Giuliano Papadia. With operations in London, Italy and Spain, Blackbox specializes in the development and production of tv series and films for the global market. Last year, the company’s first TV series The Ex-Wife was Paramount+’s first original in the UK and is currently being distributed in the rest of the world by All3Media. Alongside This Time Next Year in 2023, BlackBox is set to produce two drama series for a major streamer and another English language feature film. The company also develops and produces content in Spanish, with currently a TV show and a film in advanced development with platforms across Latin America.
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About Night Train Media
Night Train Media (NTM) was founded in February 2020 by Herbert L. Kloiber, former managing director of Tele München Group. Based in Munich and London, NTM is active on a global scale. Utilizing a vast network of international producers and distributors, NTM’s core segments include development, licensing, co-production and co-financing of premium English and local language fictional and factual content. Recent feature productions include ROGUE AGENT, starring James Norton and Gemma Arterton (Netflix, IFC); and series productions THE EX-WIFE, (the first UK commission by Paramount+); THE CATCH (Channel 5/Paramount+), VIKINGS: THE RISE AND FALL (National Geographic).
NTM is backed by Private Equity investor Serafin Group, and is majority owner of London-based factual distributor BossaNova Media, founded by Paul Heaney, leading factual production company Curve Media, alongside global fiction distributor Eccho Rights.
About Protagonist Pictures
Protagonist Pictures is a sales, finance, and production company with a proven track record in outstanding films and commercial successes. Based in the UK, the company handles films from around the world, always maintaining a strong focus on filmmakers with exceptional vision and storytelling skills.
Current sales titles include Bishal Dutta’s It Lives Inside, produced by QC Entertainment and Neon, Eli Craig’s highly anticipated horror adaptation Clown in a Cornfield, Dario Russo’s darkly comedic folktale The Fox, starring Morfydd Clark and Jai Courtney, Raymond De Felitta’s Artist in Residence starring Diane Keaton, Andy Garcia and Josh Hutcherson, Peter Craig’s Wild Four O’Clocks starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Rebecca Miller’s She Came to Me, starring Anne Hathaway, Peter Dinklage, Marisa Tomei and Joanna Kulig, the underwater thriller The Dive by Maximilian Erlenwein, BAFTA Award-winning writer-director Mark Jenkin’s psychological-horror Enys Men, which had its worldwide premiere in Directors’ Fortnight, and War Pony, the directorial debut from Riley Keough and Gina Gammell, that had its worldwide premiere in Un Certain Regard and won the Camera D’Or.
Other titles include Phyllis Nagy’s Call Jane, starring Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver, which premiered in Sundance and Berlin in 2022, Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas starrer Official Competition, by directing duo Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat, which premiered in Venice in 2021, the 2021 Nordic supernatural thriller The Innocents which premiered in Cannes at Un Certain Regard, Censor, the opening night film of the Midnight section at Sundance 2021, directed by Prano Bailey-Bond and starring Niamh Algar – both Screen International 2018 Stars of Tomorrow alumni, Ben Wheatley’s In The Earth, starring Joel Fry, Ellora Torchia, Hayley Squires, and Reece Shearsmith – also a Sundance 2021 title, Limbo, directed by Ben Sharrock and starring Amir El-Masry, Saint Maud, from Screen’s 2018 Stars of Tomorrow writer/director Rose Glass and starring Morfydd Clark and Jennifer Ehle, Sound of Metal, directed by Darius Marder, starring Riz Ahmed and Olivia Cooke.
