Nikki Ray Media Agency co-CEOs Tanya Linton and Mike Sheerin have continued to ramp up their scripted development content slate in 2023 ahead of the release of the upcoming TV film series The Love Club.

The Toronto prodco has optioned the rights to Canadian author Sonya Singh’s bestselling novel Sari, Not Sari, published by Simon & Schuster in spring 2022. The deal was negotiated by Carolyn Forde of the Transatlantic Agency.

Singh is attached as a writer and producer on a scripted series adaptation of the novel, about a successful businesswoman who unexpectedly finds romance while connecting with her South Asian roots.

In addition to developing the series, Singh will also work with the prodco in a scripted consultant role to develop other projects, Sheerin tells Playback Daily.

The deal marks the latest novel option for Nikki Ray Media as it builds out its scripted development slate. The prodco, best known for unscripted lifestyle series such as Great Chocolate Showdown, Fire Masters, and Home to Win, announced option deals for a number of properties in late 2022. They include Laurie Petrou’s coming-of-age thriller Stargazer, Jennifer Robertson’s memoir Bitcoin Widow, and Dean Jobb’s true crime novel The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream.

“Our strategy right now is to look for existing IP in the form of books that aren’t necessarily bestsellers. They can be and they have been, but it’s more [about whether a novel] is a story that we were interested in and if we think that it would make for a great TV adaptation,” says Sheerin, adding that the producers often review book blogs to discover hidden literary gems that can translate well to the screen.

He says that, in most cases, the prodco has been able to work with the authors of optioned IP to help develop the series adaptations themselves, in addition to hiring experienced showrunners to guide projects.

Overall, Sheerin says the move to scripted “happened organically” as he and wife and producing partner Linton workshopped ways to diversify their content slate. He notes that they’re also continuing to produce unscripted content as well, including a second season of the AMI-tv series Fashion Dis.

Nikki Ray Media’s foray into scripted work began with the four-part film series The Love Club, which was greenlit for Corus Entertainment’s W Network in 2022 and will premiere on Fridays in the month of February, beginning on Feb. 10. All four films are written by Barbara Kymlicka and directed by Jill Carter.

Linton says the scripted push didn’t happen overnight. She and Sheerin had long discussed opportunities in scripted content, and felt that the timing was right in the content market to pitch an interconnected film series about a group of friends who vow to support each other through their romantic crises. She adds that they were able to bring their expertise in aesthetic design to elevate the look and production value of the films, including the wardrobes, the sets, and location backdrops.

They initially pitched the concept in 2021 and spent 12 months in development before the films went into production Hamilton, Ont., in spring 2022.

“We see [the concept] as something that is franchise-able,” says Lisa Godfrey, SVP, original content and Corus Studios. “The spinoff opportunities for The Love Club are endless… I think there’s a real opportunity to see this as an ongoing series, a spinoff of the same core concept about a group of people finding love. This fit perfectly for our domestic channels and for our catalogue at Corus Studios. Our sales team is more than capable of doing a different kind of lift of selling a scripted series.”

Godfrey says Corus is close to finalizing a major sale for the film series ahead of its February debut, with additional details to come once it is completed.

“We were very fortunate because we have an amazing partner in Corus who knew that we, as producers, would be able to make what we were pitching and they were unbelievably supportive and collaborative,” says Sheerin. “It really was a great coming together of an idea at the right time for a production company that wanted to do something new, but also for a broadcaster who was willing to say, ‘we want to try that too.’ For a lot of these things, it’s about timing, and the timing for this particular project was amazing.”

The timing also came after a turbulent period for the producers. They formed Nikki Ray Media Agency a few years ago when they departed their previous banner Architect Films, which was owned by the now-defunct company Kew Media Group at the time. They were able to buy back their shares of Architect Films when Kew Media went into receivership, regaining ownership over their unscripted IP.

“We’re very lucky that we’ve been kept very busy for the past few years,” says Sheerin. “It’s a nice turnaround to have.”

Pictured (L-R): Tanya Linton and Mike Sheerin; Photo by J Deschamps