While at RT, a lovely reader, whose name escapes me because I was very tired and a couple glasses of wine deep at that point, raved to me about the PassionFlix panel. She said they’d soon be offering pre-subscriptions that would make my wallet pretty damn happy. Well, they’ve officially been announced!
For those who haven’t heard, PassionFlix is a Netflix-style streaming service, specializing in romance. Not only will they be offering a library of well-known romance films and romantic comedies to watch (Pride & Prejudice, Fifty Shades of Grey, etc.), but they’ll also be adapting romances novels to the screen. How cool is that!
Already, they have three romances in production: Hollywood Dirt by Alessandra Torre ( A | BN | AB ), Afterburn/Aftershock by Sylvia Day ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au ), and The Trouble with Mistletoe by Jill Shalvis ( A | BN | K | G | AB ).
Subscriptions will be priced at $5.99 a month, but a pre-subscription is available for $2 cheaper at $3.99 a month.
They’re also offering a Founding Member subscription, which I will be taking advantage of.
The Founding Member subscription is $100 and you receive:
- A 2 year subscription (a 30% savings)
- Invitation for a walk on role, premiere parties, or visit to set
- Voting privileges on “Casting Your Book Boyfriend,” an exclusive reality show to find the next romantic leading man
- Discounts on Passionflix merchandise
- Take advantage of the site a month early and have your voice heard in the future of Passionflix
- Be the first to know, via a private Founders club, about Passionflix projects, options, casting, and news
The Founding Membership price of $100 for two years breaks down to about $4.17 per month – a terrific deal.
What appeals to me most about the Founding Member subscription is being able to have some input in what gets adapted. So far, the romance novels PassionFlix has picked up seem rather…white, and I’d love to do what I can to push for diversity and inclusion.
Because seriously…can you imagine seeing a strong Claudia from Rebekah Weatherspoon’s Haven on the screen or Elle Burns from An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole going undercover? Or, hey, go full on and adapt Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling series – that would be Game of Thrones-level adaptation to film.
In my opinion, $100 is definitely worth the promise Founding Member benefits and I hope PassionFlix will deliver. I cannot wait to see how it turns out.
NB: The links included are affiliate coded, and we receive a commission if you sign up through our links. No harm, no foul if you do not, but if you do, thanks for supporting the site!
How do you feel about the PassionFlix project? Did you attend the panel at RT? Are you interested?
I became a founding member a week or so ago and am so excited! Such a fantastic idea. Can’t wait to see what they’ll adapt next.
This sounds amazing (a Psy Changeling series omg!). But it also makes me nervous because every time the entertainment industry gets their hands on my favorite books they screw them up spectacularly.
Ah. So Fifty Shades of Grey is a Romantic Comedy! The four minutes I saw recently were so deadpan and 80s-television-directed it was boring.
Turns out I was viewing it wrong. Needs to be treated as a Stephen Wright performance.
I signed up and had the same thought: I hope we get better representation across the romance genre. The current roster is both white and contemporary, leaving a lot of room for them to improve and expand.
Am I the only one who thinks this sounds a bit sketchy? How long did it take for Netflix to produce its own original content? This is a niche subscription service that apparently is already producing a bunch of movies. Who is backing this? It can’t just be relying on subscriptions. I don’t know. Honestly, if these movies do end up getting made, I expect them to be super low quality. I hope I’m wrong, tho.
@Gat: I do not believe subscriptions are not the only funding source for PassionFlix. As for the flims, I did see some segments of one of the movies they’ve made at RT during their session (which was packed and standing room only). It wasn’t at all a low-budget or low-quality production from the clips I saw. So I’m pretty optimistic about the quality overall.
Rather tempting! (And I am already doing fantasy casting for Psy-Changeling), but I wonder about availability outside the US. Can’t find any mentions about that.
@Maite: I was able to find this – “Passionflix will stream original content internationally, but licensed content will be available in the UK and other countries soon!”
So it looks like their original stuff will be available worldwide, but they’re working on licenses for everything else.
This is so cool! I would definitely be very interested to see how it goes before I invest especially if they expand in the diversity dept as well as the contemporary dept.
I’ve been following the PassionFlix announcement since they involved Alessandra Torre and recently wrapped on adapting her book “Hollywood Dirt”
The thing that seems to be very different for these productions is
1) the recognition that there is an inbuilt fan base for these book to film/TV adaptations and they want fans of those books to be happy about the translation between the mediums and
2) the level of involvement that the authors have. Alessandre was involved in casting, location choices and was there on set giving input. At the panel she discussed how the producer would turn to her first for answers to specific questions about intent, or set choices etc And the producer talked about how fantastic it was to have the specificity of what was in the book and the author present to draw from throughout the filming.
3) that this is being intentionally made for female viewers. The writers, producers etc are all women and they are passionate about making these adaptions with the “female gaze”, to quote them. The reason the Entertainment Industry often gets it wrong is that those are made by Men with the male gaze preeminent.
4) they are interested in using whatever format makes sense to convey the adaptation best. So there will be films, TV Series style episodes and shorts (I believe they said Maya Rodale’s will be a series of 15 minute shorts). This is not a one size fits all philosophy.
I signed up at RT with no hesitation and can’t wait to see what else they deliver.
This sounds cool, but it doesn’t sound sustainable. Unless the licensing in the U.K. and internationally is their real source of funding. And it could be! I’d imagine these movies would do well in India…maybe?
But I don’t know, this has shades of Scribd and I hope romance readers don’t get the short end of the stick here, too.
I belong to Shudder, a horror movie subscription site with a good assortment of titles. If that can work, I am sure a romance oriented site could. There’s a lot of older romantic films and TV shows out there that could find new life. Hallmark already has a subscription service, Feeln, for their brand of romantic fare.
How did I miss that Hallmark has a subscription, and that it is called FEELN?!
I womder if there is enough original content available already to make signing up as a founder member in the UK worthwhile. I don’t know where to look for a list.
@Rachel T: According to their homepage, HOLLYWOOD DIRT should be out in September, AFTERBURN/AFTERSHOCK in November, and THE TROUBLE WITH MISTLETOE in December. Plus, they’ve listed around nine romance titles to adapt in their “Coming Soon” section. It seems like they’ll be producing new stuff on a monthly or bi-monthly basis.
I would pay serious money to see Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling books made into a movie series. As well as Ilona Andrews’ Edge series. Hmm… perhaps I should do a kickstarter? Now I just need Hollywood contacts…
I signed up as a founding member last week, partly to support the effort, and partly to have input. I’m looking forward to seeing what they produce.
I would loooove some Regency era flicks, like Tessa Dare or Elizabeth Hoyt. Love their books, but seeing the costumes on screen would be awesome, too.
I am intrigued. But I can’t find anywhere saying if it will be on Roku or FireTV to watch on the TV. They show a TV as a device, but no info.
I don’t watch stuff on my phone or computer so that is very important to me.
As far as romance type services, Feeln I had for a while, but they are very “clean”. Meaning they cut movies. I cancelled it as it was just a wee bit too homey for me.
I still have Pixel via youtube, its 14.99 a year and they make their own movies along with showing some hallmark movies.
I would love romance movies that are not all like hallmark type. If you know what I mean. This sounds just like what I am looking for, but I need to be able to stream on the TV.
None of the books they are adapting so far sound very interesting to me–HOWEVER the second they announce they’re filming Lucy Parker’s Act Like it and have cast Richard Armitage to play Richard Troy then they can name their price. Cause I’ll empty my bank account to see that movie.
They’ve optioned the Driven series, also. That was announced while we were at RT. It’s intriguing, but my concern is the potential for the movies to be hokey. I didn’t forgive Lifetime for ruining some of my favorite Nora Roberts books. I haven’t read HOLLYWOOD DIRT, but the trailer made me want to read it. I didn’t like the panel as much. It was very close in the room and didn’t seem very organized. We got in there and didn’t really know what was going on. I think there was someone speaking, but I couldn’t hear over everyone else.
So, it comes down to how much of a gamble am I willing to make?