Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas has been an company government, studio associate and producer for prime stars together with Julia Roberts and Jennifer Lopez over the course of her prolonged profession. Now she’s about to turn out to be a first-time novelist — with “Sex and the City” and “Emily in Paris” creator Darren Star lined as much as adapt her e-book right into a collection for Common Tv.
“Climbing in Heels,” due April 29 from St. Martin’s Press, facilities on three secretaries at a expertise company in Nineteen Eighties Hollywood. Massive-haired, short-skirted and glamorous ladies in sky-high stilettos, they’ve sky-high desires in an trade capped by an almost unbreakable glass ceiling. The variation will probably be Star’s first mission beneath the multiyear deal he signed with Common TV in March.
“Climbing in Heels: A Novel” by Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas
(St. Martin’s Press )
“I’ve been a writer for as long as I can remember,” says Goldsmith-Thomas, who started engaged on the novel on the daybreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, a interval when a lot of Hollywood’s regular enterprise actions paused. “But I sort of kept it quiet. When I was an agent, my clients didn’t want to think their agent was a writer, and when I ran a studio, I was so busy hiring, right? This is my way of saying, ‘This is who I am.’”
Goldsmith-Thomas says ending “Climbing in Heels” and signing a deal for its adaptation got here collectively extra rapidly than she anticipated — even after her intensive expertise in Hollywood.
“I guess I went into it a little bit blind and a little naive, as you have to,” says Goldsmith-Thomas, whose résumé consists of high-powered roles at William Morris Company, ICM and Revolution Studios along with producing. “There isn’t one part of my career I ever planned; it all just sort of happened. I suppose it’s about how well you pivot, right?”
After finishing the e-book, “I gave it to a few people. I was a little nervous because I really went for it. Most of it is made up, but it’s informed by things I saw, and then I just sent it to a few people who I respect and I just thought, ‘Well, let’s see what they think.’ And one of them was Darren Star, who I’ve known since the ’80s when he was an assistant at a publicity firm, and I was a secretary calling myself an assistant. We both had aspirations to do more but really cloudy vision as to where we were going or how we would get there.”
She says Star “inhaled it, he loved it. He called me and said he wanted to option it.”
On the identical time, a number of brokers representing her at CAA had learn her manuscript and shopped it round to producers.
Goldsmith-Thomas remembers, “I was like, ‘Wait, it’s not coming out till next April.’ I wish I could tell you that this was brilliantly orchestrated, but it wasn’t. Like my career, it was just action and reaction, and so I entertained these offers from these other very big showrunners who had read it and really loved it, and I opted to go with Darren because I just think he is perfect for this.”
I entertained these affords from these different very massive showrunners who had learn it and actually liked it, and I opted to go along with Darren as a result of I simply suppose he’s excellent for this.”
— Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas
When the deal was revealed late final yr, Star known as the novel a “ballsy and bawdy love child of ‘Mad Men’ and ‘Sex and the City.’”
“I don’t know if being a producer helped me get this deal,” Goldsmith-Thomas says. “I think everybody knew who I was, but then it just happened so quickly. Darren wanted it, he spoke to Universal, they read it, they preemptively made a big offer and took it off the table. Now, we still have to pitch it to streamers, and we’re going to be doing that at the end of February.”
Goldsmith-Thomas has one earlier writing credit score: co-scripting “Second Act,” a 2018 movie starring Jennifer Lopez. Along with e-book promotion duties, Goldsmith-Thomas will probably be juggling roles as a producer of “Office Romance,” the third Lopez characteristic movie for Netflix, together with different Nuyorican Productions tasks in her function as president of Lopez’s banner.
Amongst them: the streamer’s collection adaptation of Emily Henry’s “Happy Place,” which Goldsmith-Thomas will co-produce with Lopez and Benny Medina; “Bridgerton” co-executive producer Leila Cohan is on board as showrunner. Henry is a bestselling creator whose earlier novels “Book Lovers,” “Beach Read” and “People We Meet on Vacation” are all being tailored into films.
Given the author-producer’s ties to Lopez, it’s tempting to search for the plain half for the actor in “Climbing in Heels,” which appears absent within the e-book. Goldsmith-Thomas laughs at this. “I was getting razzed about this the other day. Jennifer has said, ‘Elaine didn’t put me in it!’”
However the producer of movies corresponding to “Mona Lisa Smile” and “Hustlers” says there isn’t any scarcity of stars who’re queued up for a component.
“We have gotten a lot of calls from actors and directors, and we have some ideas for casting the characters. We have an idea for some of the women but nothing locked in yet,” Goldsmith-Thomas says. “We’re not going to a streamer with a full cast. And we haven’t written the pilot — we have to take our time. Everything else has been very fast, but we’re slowing down at this point.”
