Due to the dismantling of the Fox 2000 branch as a result of the Disney-Fox merger, Angie Thomas is moving the adaptation of her YA bestseller, On The Come Up, to Paramount and it will get made through the studio’s Paramount Players division. Thomas’ previous YA adaptation, The Hate U Give, was handled by Fox 2000 before the recent merger.
Thomas’ second novel has been a massive YA bestseller since it was published in February by the HarperCollins imprint Balzer & Bray. The deal for the film rights was announced by the studio in February but never was fully papered and the author preferred to move rather than deal with the uncertainty of what might happen to the film version of her book with the collapse of Fox 2000.
The novel focuses on Bri, a young rapper and the daughter of an underground hip hop legend who died just before making it big. Her father’s legend makes him a hard act to follow, but between Bri being bullied and watching her mother struggle after losing her job, she pours out her frustration into songs that become big viral hits. It is set in the same fictional universe as Thomas’ first book The Hate U Give. The team behind The Hate U Give quickly aligned with Thomas’ follow-up with George Tillman Jr. attached to direct in a co-production between Temple Hill and State Street Pictures.
This becomes the second, but likely, not last, picture to move over following the close of the sale of Fox to Disney and the collapse of Fox 2000. Yesterday it was revealed that the Paul Greengrass-directed and Tom Hanks starring vehicle, News of the World, will move to Universal after being developed at Fox 2000.
