Modern Love column heading into theatres

By Sarah Sluis

For those that read the New York Times, the "Modern Love" column is often one of their first stops in the Sunday Styles section. The stories can be contemplative, whimsical, bizarre, and cute--sometimes to a fault. A couple who adopts a dog, a daughter who searches for her birth mother on Facebook, and a woman who refuses to let her husband leave her are all fodder for the column. In fact, the last story sounds a lot like the forthcoming movie Serious Moonlight, in which a woman (Meg Ryan) holds their husband hostage in her house in an attempt to save their marriage.

Columbia Pictures now has a first-look deal with "Modern Love," with the idea that they can use the material for romantic comedies. As much as I like to mock the column, I think the stories, which are all based on the authors' real experiences, are more nuanced than typical romantic comedies. While the film genre tends toward the obvious or unbelievable, the unusual circumstances remain believable since they are, in fact, true. While some of the stories are small in scope, most seem condensed to fit into a column. The addition or a few details and subplots could easily fill up a 100-page screenplay.

Still, the series of columns may lend itself better to the second production deal it has in the works, which is an HBO show about a fictional male editor of the column, who has recently divorced, as well as the stories in the column. It sounds like a (slightly depressed) male version of the Carrie Bradshaw role from "Sex and the City." In television form, the show would be able to take advantage of the column's consistent tone, in my mind an asset.

These deals are but the latest New York Times articles to be acquired with an eye for adaptation. Since signing a contract with the paper, the ICM agency has successfully sold several of the paper's stories--but at least it's another revenue stream for the Old Grey Lady in a tough climate for journalism. Just don't let them make a movie about balloon boy.