Wattpad Webtoon Studios, the fan-driven entertainment and publishing site that has sparked more than 100 film and TV projects, has renewed and expanded its agreement with Indonesian streaming platform Vidio and leading local producer Screenplay Films.
The pact is the first major deal to be announced since Canada-based Wattpad was acquired in June by Korean tech giant Naver and merged with Naver’s animation powerhouse Webtoon.
Vidio has given a greenlight to five new series and ordered a second season of the record-breaking series “Turn On.” It will announce several other new projects at a later date.
Wattpad was conceived as an online publishing platform. Operating across the globe and in multiple languages, it is able to identify popular content from lesser-known writers and to spot emerging regional trends and genres. This has made it a valuable source of original content for producers and broadcast groups including Netflix, Sony Pictures Television, Crunchyroll, The Jim Henson Company, Vertigo Entertainment, and Constantin Film.
Wattpad claims nine million users in Indonesia, making the populous country the firm’s second largest user base. Indonesia is home to some of Wattpad’s most successful writers and stories and to the #MuslimRomance writing movement.
Most of the projects on the new slate have huge numbers of past readers. “Married With Senior,” with 51.8 million reads and written by @Cintaprita is the tale of two mismatched students who awkwardly discover that they are headed for an arranged marriage, but might just be perfect for each other. “Danielle and Nicolette,” written by @Matchamallow arrives with 46 million reads and is the romantic tale of an orphaned musician and the boss of a TV station.
“My Ice Girl” mixes the romance and murder mystery genres in a tale of a man’s quest to understand his younger sister’s death. Penned by Pitsansi, its pedigree is 22 million reads. “My Nerd Girl” sees a woman take on a new identity in order to probe her sister’s apparent suicide. Written by @Aidahharisah, it arrives with over 27 million reads. “Mari Jangan Saling Jatuh CInta,” by @Kiranada sees a triangular friendship put to the test.
Wicky Olindo of Screenplay will serve as producer on each of the shows. Executive producers will be Sutanto Hartono, Hermawan Sutanto and Tina Arwin for Vidio; Anthony Buncio for Screenplay; and Aron Levitz, Eric Lehrman and Dexter Ong for Wattpad Webtoon.
“We’ve seen the incredible value of working with Wattpad Webtoon Studios from the moment these projects started streaming. So, we’re thrilled to expand our official partnership to adapt the most popular Wattpad stories in Indonesia,” said Arwin, chief content officer at Vidio.
The 2020 deal between Wattpad, Vidio and Screenplay yielded a slate of Bahasa-Indonesia language original series that are now in different stages of readiness.
“Turn On” was based on a Tiara Wales story of the same name with 17.9 million reads, and was adapted into a show featuring Indonesian stars Giorgino Abraham and Clara Bernadeth and directed by Vemmy Sagita. It was Vidio’s most popular show of the first quarter of this year and claimed 13 million views.
“Paradise Garden” was a July hit. It was based on a @Khojina story, directed by Tommy Dewo and starred Jefri Nichol and Vanescha Prescilla.
A third show, “Live With My Ketos” based on @Matcharay’s story with 18.1 million views, will stream from the end of August. The adaptation stars Adhisty Zara and Arbani Yazis.
“The Wattpad Webtoon Studios model is all about listening to fans and creating the entertainment they want. Vidio and Screenplay have truly embraced our innovative approach, and the results are clear: record-breaking success and a growing fandom,” said Aron Levitz, president of Wattpad Webtoon Studios.