Social publishing platform Wattpad is announcing one of the first partnerships as part of its new Wattpad Studios program — the company has struck a deal with Turner to help generate ideas for shows on Turner networks, starting with the upcoming Tales from the Crypt revival on TNT.
Wattpad Studios head Aron Levitz said it’s too early to reveal all the details of the partnership, but on a broad level, it will include contests where Wattpad writers can submit ideas for Tales from the Crypt (which will be produced by Sixth Sense writer-director M. Night Shyamalan) and the rest of TNT’s block of horror programming.
“It could be looking for story ideas, creature ideas, it could really be looking for anything,” Levitz said.
In addition, Wattpad will be providing Turner with data about the horror stories and writers that are already popular on the service, helping Turner’s networks find potential plots and writing talent.
In the partnership announcement, Justin Williams, senior vice president of digital ventures for TNT and TBS, said the deal represents “a perfect intersection of content and fan engagement, where fans actually have the chance to directly influence and, in some cases even have their material optioned and developed by our networks.”
This actually isn’t the first time that work published on Wattpad has made its way into another medium. The company previously worked with the TV5 Network in the Philippines on a show adapted from Wattpad stories, and Paramount Pictures has acquired the rights to After, a book by Wattpad author Anna Todd.
“[Studios] have lots of stories coming in all the time — what they don’t have is fans attached to the stories,” Levitz said. “That’s what’s making everyone’s excited. … What we have is not just a book or a manuscript that’s been sitting on the shelf. What we’re bringing is the fans who come with it — hundreds of thousands or millions of people who will show up to watch it.”