Magpie Pictures Options Pictures of You

Magpie Pictures has optioned the screen rights to Emma Grey’s novel Pictures of You as part of its slate of series developed through its Screen Australia Enterprise-funded growth strategy.

Pictures of You centers on Evie Hudson, who wakes up in a hospital room thinking she is fresh out of a teenage party with her best friend. In reality, high school was years ago, and she is suffering from a traumatic loss of memory. She actually just survived a car crash that killed her husband.

A chance encounter with photographer Drew unravels the details of her marriage and her husband’s death. Evie is left to question every decision she has ever made.

Lois Randall, founder and producer at Magpie Pictures, will produce the series, alongside Matt Kelly as executive producer.

“We have curated a slate focused on impactful stories from Australian female creators that will engage and entertain Australian and international audiences,” Randall said. “Emma Grey is establishing herself as a best-selling Australian author, with a talent for writing compelling and deeply affecting fiction. Pictures of You rocketed straight into the USA Today bestseller list after it was published in November and is already out-pacing Grey’s debut novel The Last Love Note, which was a global breakout bestseller.”

Randall continued, “Pictures of You follows forensic linguist Evie Hudson who, after a car crash that killed her husband, can’t remember him or any of the past 13 years. As she pieces together fragments of her life, Evie has to confront what she’s lost and find what she still has to fight for. With its unique hook and point of view, we’re adapting Pictures of You as a mystery thriller that, while traversing urgent themes, has a second-chance love story at its heart.”

“From the outset, Magpie Pictures has shared my vision to capture the light and shade in this story and my desire to translate the novel’s powerful contemporary messages for a fresh audience,” Grey said. “I’m thrilled to be working with Lois and the team.”

Pictures of You joins Magpie Pictures’ new slate that also features the original mystery thriller The Dark Horse and the Hummingbird, created by Lâle Teoman, and the dramedy Provenance, written by Giula Sandler, based on the Melbourne art-world mysteries by Katherine Kovacic.

This comes after the recent appointment of new advisors Quan Phung (How I Met Your Mother; House, M.D.) and Fiona Eagger (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries) in the second stage of the Enterprise strategy.

Randall said she is “honored to work with Los Angeles-based executive and producer Quan Phung and acclaimed Australian producer Fiona Eagger, who are advising on both creative and business development, bringing an extraordinary depth of experience and market insight to the company.”

“I’m thrilled to serve as an advisor for Magpie and a producing partner with Lois on select projects,” Phung said. “Magpie’s already shown a keen eye in identifying fresh voices with series like Swift Street. As global audiences and buyers embrace uniquely Australian series, it’s a great time for Magpie to focus on authentic female voices that will create the next big Australian global hit. I’m excited to join the Magpie team at Screen Forever to help connect them to global partners.”