Televisa USA preps erotic Sleeping Beauty series

Televisa’s US division has acquired the rights to Anne Rice’s The Sleeping Beauty series of erotic novels.

The author has been lined up to exec produce the TV adaptation of her book series, which was first published in the early-to-mid 1980s under the pseudonym A.N. Roquelaure.

Televisa USA bosses Paul Presburger and Michael Garcia will also exec produce, as will Endemol North America co-chairman and CEO Charlie Corwin.

The book series was a cult hit before achieving more mainstream appeal in the wake of the success of Fifty Shades of Grey. They have now sold over 100 million copies.

Rice said: “I wrote this to be fun, in the belief that dominance and submission can be romantic and delightful as well as erotic.”

“Now is the perfect moment for this project,” Garcia commented. “On the heels of such boundary-pushing adaptations as 50 Shades and HBO’s Game of Thrones, the topics explored in this series are in the zeitgeist and we feel television is finally ready for them.”

He added: “We are now going out to writers and talent, and will put all the creative, production and distribution elements in place quickly.”