Local author and assembly member Heather Lende’s books may become a TV series.
Variety announced Friday that FremantleMedia, a global media firm based in Los Angeles and London, aims to create an “accessible family drama” similar to the hit NBC show “This is Us” that broke television records last year.
The company has obtained the rights to Lende’s first and last books, “Find the Good” and “If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name.” “The audience wants something dramatic and family-based, and which is optimistic without being saccharine,” FremantleMedia executive Christian Vesper said. Vesper visited Haines last summer to meet with Lende and tour town.
Vesper, Lende’s manager Brian Pines, and Lende will be executive producers of the show.
“I’m going to be very involved in the process,” Lende said. She said she’ll have a hand in choosing writers and actors, discussing the stories and making sure the semi-fictional storylines are authentic. She said she’ll do what she can from Haines, not wanting to move and work fulltime in Los Angeles or London.
Lende said she was approached by the director of global drama at FremantleMedia about the opportunity through a message on her website over a year and a half ago.
Episodes will follow a small-town Alaskan obituary writer and the stories of the deceased, with a related existential issue that’s solved by the end of the episode.
Lende said it was important to her that all names were changed from the books, including the town name of Haines.
“I have confidence in the FremantleMedia team,” Lende said. “I think they get it, they get my stories, they get Haines and they want to create a TV show that makes people feel good about life.”
Lende said her books are the “raw material” for the show, but the writers will have “poetic license” to fictionalize parts.
“I’m nervous how they are going to portray all of us,” Lende said. She said her first book was very personal about her life and family. “I’m confident that because it’s semi-fictional that the characters on the TV screen… they’re not going to be us.”
Lende said this is just the beginning of the process to produce a show. A lot of factors go into making a show successful, so Lende said there is a possibility it could fail before getting approved as a series on network television.
“It’s a great creative opportunity for me to learn about TV and drama,” Lende said. She has a master’s degree in fiction. “So far, the process has been very interesting for me. I’m learning about how the world works.”