Al Roker Hopes to Enter Streaming Wars With ‘Personal Librarian’

Al Roker is greatest identified for his facility in explaining the climate. However the “As we speak” veteran is about to check his footing on new terrain.

His manufacturing firm, Al Roker Leisure, has optioned “The Private Librarian,” by authors Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, for what he hopes will turn into a restricted collection or movie that would discover a residence, probably, on a streaming service. The ebook has private relevance to Roker. His wife, the ABC Information nationwide correspondent, Deborah Roberts, is a fan and performed a key function in persuading the authors to work with the manufacturing firm. Roker and Roberts will work as govt producers on the undertaking.

The novel is about J. P. Morgan’s private librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, the Black American lady with gentle pores and skin who was pressured to cover her true identification and go as white. The ebook fascinated Roberts, and, subsequently, Roker. “It blew me away,” he says in an interview. “The concept that any person has to subvert their very identification to succeed — there’s a few of that occurring at the moment.”

Whereas many TV viewers know Roker from his years spent analyzing the local weather for “As we speak” and different venues, few know that he has led a small TV-production firm for greater than 20 years. The store, Al Roker Leisure, has produced unscripted and short-form scripted programming for a variety of venues, and he has experimented with content material that may be transmitted with new applied sciences, comparable to Meerkat. However Roker acknowledges that this new effort would mark “the primary time we’re doing one thing like this.”

“From the second I picked up ‘The Private Librarian,’ I fell in love with it. And I knew it wanted to make the leap to a collection or movement image, “mentioned Roberts, in a ready assertion.

The duo have begun approaching potential studios concerning the undertaking, Roker says, however don’t have a time-table at current. “Issues can take time or they’ll impulsively click on and you might be off to the races. I’m hoping it’s the latter.”

Marie Benedict is represented by Laura Dail of Laura Dail Literary Company, Inc. Victoria Christopher Murray is represented by Liza Dawson at Liza Dawson Associates.