Hollywood Ventures Group has optioned Namratha Stanley’s memoir “Vineyard Melody” for a film adaptation, with the deal closed during the Cannes Film Festival.
HVG co-founder Glenn Gainor has had director conversations in Cannes as the company charts the project’s development path.
Published by Regalo Press, the memoir follows Stanley from a decade-plus of domestic abuse in Bangalore to the vineyards of Bordeaux. The turning point comes when a violent attack by her husband nearly kills both her and her daughter. Stanley boards a plane to France to pursue an MBA, leaving her daughter in her parents’ care while she establishes herself abroad, and eventually builds her own wine label while fighting to bring her daughter out of India to join her.
“Understanding her origin story, I realized I was looking at a very powerful woman, a very strong person, a person of conviction and a beautiful moral compass,” Gainor says.
Gainor built Screen Gems’ physical production department at Sony Pictures, having previously produced three features for Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison label – “Strange Wilderness,” “Grandma’s Boy,” and “Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo.” He later oversaw Amazon MGM productions including “Being the Ricardos,” “The Tender Bar,” and “Red One,” and received the Social Impact Producer of the Year award at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. He tells Variety he sees in the material a quality central to the projects HVG pursues.
“I believe her story has a sense of urgency,” Gainor says.
The company has yet to determine whether the project will take shape as a local-language production, an international film, or a platform title, with those decisions to be worked through in partnership with collaborators.
“As a writer, you hope to find partners who truly connect with the core of your narrative,” Stanley says. “When Glenn and I first met in Paris, and later traveled to Bordeaux, our conversations cemented the fact that he shared my exact vision for the screen adaptation. Hollywood Ventures Group represents the future of storytelling, and I am incredibly proud to trust them with this project.”
HVG was co-founded by Sandy Climan, who serves as chair. Climan, a former Universal Studios executive vice president and founding head of CAA’s corporate practice, produced Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator” – earning a BAFTA and a Golden Globe – and executive produced digital live-action 3D feature, “U2 3D.” The company’s portfolio spans impact-driven projects alongside commercial IP, including representation of Platinum Universe’s catalog of more than 1,300 comic book characters.
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