Universal Pictures has won a multi-studio bidding war for film rights to the harrowing story of Amy Krouse Rosenthal — the late author who proactively wrote her husband’s dating profile while she was dying of cancer,
Paramount, Sony and Jeff Robinov’s Studio8 were in competition for the property, but Universal won with a check in the low-seven-figures, an individual familiar with the deal told TheWrap.
The story, which appeared in the popular “Modern Love” section of the New York Times, became a internet sensation when it was published in March.
Prolific producer Marc Platt — who has five live-action adaptations in the works at Disney — is attached to produce, the insider added. WME repped Krouse Rosenthal’s family and estate.
Chicago-based author Rosenthal, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2015, wrote dozens of books for children and adults as well as a memoir, “Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life.”
After complications from her cancer escalated, the author wrote a sincere and wrenching would-be dating ad for her husband Jason Rosenthal.
“He is an easy man to fall in love with. I did it in one day,” Rosenthal wrote.
“First, the basics: He is 5-foot-10, 160 pounds, with salt-and-pepper hair and hazel eyes,” Rosenthal continued, before offering a list of Jason’s best attributes.
“He is a sharp dresser. Our young adult sons, Justin and Miles, often borrow his clothes. Those who know him — or just happen to glance down at the gap between his dress slacks and dress shoes — know that he has a flair for fabulous socks,” Rosenthal wrote. “He is fit and enjoys keeping in shape.”
In response to his wife’s essay, Jason Rosenthal said that he was “shocked at the beauty” of it.
“I didn’t know exactly what she was composing,” Rosenthal said in a statement. “But I was with her as she labored through this process and I can tell you that writing the story was no easy task. When I read her words for the first time, I was shocked at the beauty, slightly surprised at the incredible prose given her condition and, of course, emotionally ripped apart.”
THR first reported the deal.