Romance Book Legend Nicholas Sparks Turns to TV
The word is out that Nicholas Sparks, the man who has through millions of women enriched the tissue industry with books like The Notebook and The Guardian, will be writing a television show for ABC. The word is that the book will center on the life and loves of a earth-bound fallen angel. If the previous efforts are any indication, including two films that had scores of theatre-goers leaving the film red-eyed and sniffing, this will be another emotion-filled romantic story. The real question is: how do you do a story with that kind of impact on a weekly basis?
The basics of the story according to a recent interview on Dateline, is that a fallen angel comes to earth in search of his lost love, a mortal. Sparks will be co-writing the weekly show with veteran television writer Kristen Hahn and the production will be handled by the same company that produced Dear John and Safe Haven for the big screen. So that does mean there is some past history to help the development along. It doesn’t hurt that Temple Hill, the production company handling the new Sparks venture, just completed its latest venture, Twilight. So perhaps it is no surprise that the genre-driven romance element can be expected as the central driving element of the story concept.
“I’ve always wanted to create a smart, unconventional show about angels on Earth, and ABC is the perfect home for this kind of imaginative, character-driven drama,” said Sparks and it does indeed sound like an unconventional show. But then since Angels are supposed to be the new vampires, perhaps it is simply a vanguard of a new trend. No word yet on when it is supposed to premier or even when principal casting is expected to take place. Let’s hope this doesn’t mean Sparks is walking away from continuing to write for the more traditional book trade.
In the meantime, since it is a cold rainy night, perhaps I will crack open my old copy of The Notebook and take another walk down that emotional and yet uplifting path. Care to join me?
