Fox Entertainment Studios has entered a first-look development and producing agreement with Cottage Industry Entertainment, the company founded by Lisa Hamilton Daly and Alysia Cotter Thomas. The arrangement covers scripted television and feature-film development, with a slate that includes book adaptations, an original family drama, a comedy and a hockey-centered romantic comedy.
The most concrete television title named so far is The Whittiers, an adaptation of a Danielle Steel novel that Fox has optioned for television. An option is an agreement giving a producer or studio the temporary right to pursue an adaptation of underlying material. It is an important early step, but it is not the same thing as a series order, a confirmed cast, a release date or a production start.
That distinction applies across the slate. The projects are in development, meaning the companies are working to shape them for potential production and distribution. For viewers, the deal signals a wider collection of stories under consideration rather than a guaranteed calendar of upcoming premieres.
A deal built around development across two formats
A first-look deal generally gives one studio the initial opportunity to consider projects from a producing partner. In practical terms, Cottage Industry can develop material while Fox Entertainment Studios gets an early chance to move forward with it. The setup combines the newer company’s creative focus with the studio partner’s development and production infrastructure.
Cottage Industry was formed by Hamilton Daly and Cotter Thomas around emotionally engaging, female-driven material in commercially broad genres. The stated remit spans romantic comedies, family dramas, mysteries and thrillers. The announced project list reflects that approach: it mixes recognizable literary properties with original concepts and operates in both television and film.
For an audience, that breadth matters more than the business terminology. A single-project announcement can reveal the direction of one title. A multi-project first-look relationship instead suggests an ongoing attempt to build a pipeline: several concepts at different stages, with different tones and possible formats. The emphasis here is not one franchise or one genre, but a set of projects intended to appeal across several familiar entertainment lanes.
The television projects currently named
Along with The Whittiers, the television side includes an adaptation of Lindsay MacMillan’s Summer on Lilac Island. Delondra Mesa, whose credits include Z Nation, is attached as writer. It is a notable example of the slate’s adaptation strategy: a pre-existing novel is paired with a writer who will turn its premise and characters into an episodic screen story.
Television adaptation is not a simple matter of transferring a book page by page. A novel’s internal perspective, pacing and endpoint may need to be reworked into scenes, episodes and season-level arcs. The announcement establishes the underlying book and writing attachment, but it does not provide episode counts, a network or streaming destination, casting, a production timetable or a premiere plan.
Related coverage includes Fox Entertainment Studios Sets First-Look Deal With Cottage Industry.
Fox Entertainment Studios and Cottage Industry are also developing an untitled one-hour family drama from writer Jordanna Fraiberg, whose prior work includes The Dead Girls Detective Agency. “One-hour” is industry shorthand for the dramatic format, though it does not itself identify where the project will air or how long a final episode would run in any specific distribution model.
The television lineup also includes Mom’s Place, a comedy from Angela Kinsey and Audrey Wauchope. Kinsey is known for The Office, while Wauchope’s credits include Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. The project adds a comedy component to a development group otherwise weighted toward dramas and literary adaptations.
- The Whittiers: a proposed television adaptation of the Danielle Steel novel, optioned by Fox.
- Summer on Lilac Island: a television adaptation of Lindsay MacMillan’s novel, with Delondra Mesa attached to write.
- Untitled family drama: a one-hour project from Jordanna Fraiberg.
- Mom’s Place: a comedy from Angela Kinsey and Audrey Wauchope.
Three films point to romance and literary adaptation
The feature side of the arrangement has three named projects. It All Comes Down to This is described as a hockey-themed romantic comedy from screenwriters Sam Sklaver and Elizabeth Peterson. Sports settings can provide a clear professional and social environment for a romance, but the available details stop there; no plot, cast, director or distribution information has been disclosed.
The View from Lake Como will adapt the novel by Adriana Trigiani, who is also adapting her own work. An author adapting their own novel does not dictate how the finished screenplay will look, but it creates a direct connection between the original book’s creator and the screenwriting process. It is also the second named literary adaptation in the deal to include its original author prominently in the development setup.
The third film project is an adaptation of Cynthia Hand’s The Afterlife of Holly Chase, with Ali Laventhol and Tawnya Bhattacharya attached to adapt. As with the television titles, the attachment identifies a creative team and a direction for development, not a completed film or confirmed release.
The concentration of book-based projects is meaningful. Established novels offer a foundation of characters, themes and story material before the screenplay or teleplay process begins. They also bring a known title into the conversation. But adaptation rights and writing attachments are only portions of a longer process. Scripts need to be developed, creative decisions need to be made, and a project must ultimately secure the further commitments necessary to be made and released.
Why the founders’ backgrounds fit the slate
Hamilton Daly and Cotter Thomas arrive with experience from different parts of the entertainment business. Hamilton Daly previously served as executive vice president of programming at Hallmark Media, where her portfolio included The Way Home, When Calls the Heart, Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, Mistletoe Murders and Ripple. She has also been director of original series at Netflix and worked at Lifetime and A+E Films.
That programming background aligns with Cottage Industry’s focus on audience-friendly drama and romance. Programming executives work with the development and commissioning process around shows, making decisions that connect creative material with a network or platform’s intended audience and schedule. It is not a guarantee that any new title will match past work, but it helps explain the company’s stated interest in emotionally accessible genres.
Cotter Thomas most recently worked as a literary agent at Paradigm, where she packaged Ross Evan’s speculative screenplay How to Save a Marriage for Sony Pictures. In entertainment, packaging refers to bringing key creative elements together around a project, such as material, writers, talent or producing partners. Her prior career also includes Warner Bros., where she was part of the team that developed the Batman franchise with Christopher Nolan; a vice president role at Legendary Entertainment; and vice president of creative affairs at Working Title in London.
Combined, those paths give Cottage Industry experience in television programming, literary representation, studio development and film creative affairs. Fox Entertainment Studios head of scripted Hannah Pillemer described the pair as bringing complementary creative instincts, industry experience and an understanding of audience connection. Hamilton Daly and Cotter Thomas, meanwhile, said they share Fox’s interest in stories designed to entertain and move audiences across family drama, romantic comedy and thriller territory.
What is confirmed—and what remains open
The deal confirms that Fox Entertainment Studios and Cottage Industry are collaborating under a first-look development and producing arrangement, and it identifies the titles and creative attachments currently in their pipeline. It also confirms Fox’s option for a television version of The Whittiers.
It does not confirm that every named title has been greenlit. There are no disclosed casts, directors, episode orders, filming dates, release dates or platform assignments for these projects in the information available. The responsible reading is that the slate represents possibilities being actively developed, with each title still facing the normal creative and business decisions that separate development from a finished show or movie.
For now, the chief takeaway is the range of the partnership. Cottage Industry’s early Fox slate reaches from family drama and comedy to romance, hockey and novel adaptations, while centering a stated interest in female-driven storytelling. It is a development deal designed to create more than one opportunity—and the eventual shape of that opportunity will depend on which of these projects advances beyond the current stage.
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