In August 2023, author Carly Fortune confirmed a rumor which had been circulating at the time: Netflix purchased the rights to her novel Meet Me at the Lake, with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex attached to produce the project through Archewell Productions. As of this moment, the film adaptation has gone nowhere. I don’t even think any screenwriter has been hired to adapt a script, there’s no casting or director attached, nothing. A Netflix executive did cite Meet Me at the Lake as one of the Sussexes’ upcoming projects back in February of this year, but again… there’s been zero news and zero movement on this. Now Page Six has a “Hollywood source” questioning if the book will ever be adapted.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s remaining Netflix projects may be on ice as their exclusive multi-million dollar deal comes to an end, Page Six is told. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced with great fanfare, back in August 2023, that they were producing a film adaptation of Carley Fortune’s hit romance novel, “Meet Me at the Lake” for the streamer.
But we’re told Archewell productions has yet to hire a director or come anywhere close to picking a cast. Netflix is believed to have paid out around $3 million for the rights to the book for the duo to produce.
“By this point, you would have thought they would have got a director on board and a cast. So what is the delay?” asked a Hollywood source. “And when you make something for Netflix, it takes a long time for it to actually hit the streamer — there is so much to do in post production, to make sure it’s ready for every country. If the deal is up this year, then when is this film going to be made?”
The couple were also working on a documentary set in Africa — albeit without Harry, 40, or Markle, 43, appearing. This, too, may be on the back burner.
“What’s the betting that neither of these projects will see the light of day?” said a source in the know.
As Page Six previously reported, the Sussexes’ Netflix deal will end this year, and the couple may move to a first-look contract, like President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle’s production company, Higher Ground, has. This week, sources were quick to tell us, however, that there will be more TV shows from the renegade royals.
Y’all don’t want to hear what I have to say, so I’ll mostly just keep my mouth shut. But …two years is a long time for absolutely nothing to happen to a project which was hand-delivered to Harry and Meghan. Granted, the Sussexes like to release completed projects, so it’s possible they’ve been moving quietly in preproduction, or that they’re having issues finding a screenwriter or something like that. But there’s absolutely nothing to indicate that there’s been any movement for the past two years. From the outside looking in, it seems like the property is just sitting there untouched. I’m also curious about Harry’s Africa documentary, because we’ve heard rumors about that for years, and then… nothing. They could clear a lot of this up with some public statements about it.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
