Paddington meets Astérix as Canal+ and Hachette forge book-to-screen alliance

* Canal+ and Hachette launch ON SCREEN for premium book adaptations

* Venture grants Canal+ access to Hachette's 100,000-title catalogue, ​including ‌Astérix

* Book adaptations make up 40% of top box office but under 10% of productions, firms ⁠say

* Both companies were spun off from Vivendi ⁠in December 2024

May 5 (Reuters) - ​French broadcaster Canal+ and publishing giant Hachette Livre are joining forces to leverage Hachette's extensive literary catalogue for premium screen adaptations, they said on Tuesday.

The new joint venture, named ​ON SCREEN, ‌brings the maker of "Paddington" and the publisher of "Astérix" under a single roof dedicated to turning pages into pixels.

The venture will give Canal+ privileged access to the world's third-largest publishing group's catalogue of more than 100,000 titles, spanning fiction, children's ​and young adult books, and illustrated works published in a dozen languages.

Hachette owns the ‌rights to "Astérix", one of the world's best-selling comic book series with more than 370 million copies sold and its published ‌authors include James Patterson, Stephenie Meyer and Michael Connelly.

Canal+'s films business, StudioCanal, has meanwhile built Paddington into one of cinema's most beloved franchises, a model it now hopes to ​replicate at scale.

The market rationale is compelling: book adaptations represent around 40% of the top 100 ‌global box office while accounting for less than 10% of total film production, the companies said.

"This opens a clear opportunity to rethink how literary IP is brought to ⁠screen, and ⁠to build a sustained pipeline of premium adaptations with ‌global reach," they added.

StudioCanal has already laid the groundwork, having launched Stories, a dedicated literary adaptation label, ​in 2024.

Both companies ​were spun off from media conglomerate Vivendi in December ‌2024, with Canal+ listed in London and Hachette on Euronext Growth Paris.

Despite their separation, France's Bolloré family remains a major shareholder of both, holding around 30% in each company. (Reporting by Leo Marchandon in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)

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