PLAYGROUND Secures Film & TV Rights To Imogen Hermes Gowar’s bestselling debut novel THE MERMAID AND MRS HANCOCK

Award-winning Producer of WOLF HALL and HOWARDS END to adapt Imogen Hermes Gowar’s bestselling debut novel

BAFTA and Golden Globe winning producer Colin Callender has secured the film and television rights to Imogen Hermes Gowar’s bestselling debut novel The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock. Callender will produce through his company, Playground.

A top three Sunday Times bestseller, the book has been a critical and commercial success, drawing comparisons with Angela Carter, early Jane Austen and Susanna Clarke. Picked as a ‘Most Anticipated Book of 2018’ by 18 publications including Vogue and BBC Arts, the novel has also been long-listed for The Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Desmond Elliott Prize.

Colin Callender, Executive Producer and Founder of Playground, says “In the tradition of Wolf Hall and Howards End we at Playground are very excited to bring to the screen Imogen’s remarkable debut novel. We are honoured that she has entrusted us with her gloriously enthralling original story.”

Melissa Gallant, Creative Director at Playground UK, says “We instantly fell in love with Imogen's extraordinary and spellbinding novel. It is such a vibrant and moving love story full of originality and purpose.”

The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock is a rich historical novel that combines sumptuous reality with the power of legend. Set in 1785, it tells the story of Jonah Hancock, a prosperous merchant and widower, whose Captain returns having sold Hancock's ship and cargo in exchange for an extraordinary creature; a mermaid. This mermaid becomes the subject of great curiosity and forges an encounter between Hancock and the desirable courtesan, Angelica Neal. What follows is the tale of two individuals trying to forge their own destinies, whilst hurtling towards one another. The book expertly explores sexual politics and power along with our very human longing for the magical intervention of fate.

The deal was brokered by Luke Speed of Curtis Brown Group on behalf of Karolina Sutton of Curtis Brown Group.

About Playground
Playground is a New York and London based television, film and theatre production company founded in 2012 by award-winning producer Colin Callender. It is committed to producing smart, entertaining drama for the screen and the stage bringing together the finest US and UK talent from the worlds of theatre, film, and television.

Playground has produced over 60 hours of primetime television drama garnering 15 Emmy nominations, 20 BAFTA nominations, and 12 Golden Globe nominations, including winning a Golden Globe for Best Miniseries.

Recent productions include Wolf Hall, the BAFTA, Golden Globe and Peabody Award winning miniseries starring Mark Rylance, Damian Lewis and Claire Foy for the BBC and Masterpiece, and The Dresser, the RTS winning television adaptation of Ronald Harwood’s acclaimed play starring Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins and directed by Richard Eyre for the BBC and Starz, The White Princess, a limited series for Starz drawn from the bestselling book by Philippa Gregory, Howards End, Academy Award-winner Kenneth Lonergan’s adaptation of E.M. Forster’s classic novel starring Hayley Atwell, Matthew Macfadyen and Tracey Ullman directed by Hettie Macdonald for the BBC and Starz, Little Women adapted by Heidi Thomas and starring Emily Watson, Michael Gambon and Angela Lansbury for the BBC and Masterpiece, and King Lear starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson and directed by Richard Eyre for the BBC and Amazon.

Playground’s previous theatre productions on Broadway include: Nora Ephron’s Tony-nominated Lucky Guy directed by George C. Wolfe starring Tom Hanks in his Broadway debut, Harvey Fierstein’s Tony-nominated Casa Valentina directed by Joe Mantello, the Tony award-winning revival of musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Jez Butterworth’s The River directed by Ian Rickson starring Hugh Jackman, and Kenneth Branagh and Rob Ashford’s critically acclaimed groundbreaking production of Macbeth at The Park Avenue Armory in New York, and John Tiffany's The Glass Menagerie in the West End.

Playground, in partnership with Sonia Friedman Productions, is opening a production of the West End record-breaking hit two-part play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway this spring. Other current theatre productions include the Tony Award-winning best musical Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway and, in the West End, in partnership with Sonia Friedman Productions, Casey Nicholaw’s Dreamgirls.