The sapphic romance will be executive produced by Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird.
The Big Picture
- Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe are teaming up to bring the soccer romance novel
Cleat Cute
to life as a TV show. - The book tells the story of soccer players Grace and Phoebe, combining sapphic romance with sports rivalries.
- This will be the first TV series produced by Bird and Rapinoe’s production company, A Touch More, with a focus on diverse storytelling.
Former WNBA star Sue Bird is officially partnering up with ex-U.S. Women’s Soccer captain Megan Rapinoe to turn Meryl Wilsner’s soccer romance novel Cleat Cute into a TV show. The series is going to be developed under Bird and Rapinoe’s production banner A Touch More and the independent TV studio Future Shack Entertainment.
Originally published in 2023, Cleat Cute is a contemporary queer romance novel that tells the story of two young soccer players. At the age of 26, Grace Henderson is the captain of the US Women’s National Team. But when she’s sidelined with an injury, 22-year-old Phoebe Matthews takes her place. The book’s official synopsis states:
“Phoebe Matthews is too focused on her first season as a professional soccer player to think about seducing her longtime idol. But when Grace ends up making the first move, they can’t keep their hands off of each other.”
Macmillan Publishers describe the book as a sapphic rivals-to-lovers rom-com for fans of Ted Lasso and the 1992 sports comedy-drama A League of Their Own where two soccer teammates are at odds before falling deeply in love as their team gears up for the World Cup.
‘Cleat Cute’ Will Be The First TV Series Produced by A Touch More
Bird, Rapinoe, and Wilsner are set to serve as executive producers for the adaptation along with A Touch More’s head of development Camille Bernier-Green. The former sports stars released a joint statement saying that they were thrilled to be working with Future Shack to bring Meryl Wilsner’s story to life. “Having spent most of our lives on teams, we want to celebrate the ways in which relationships, both romantic and platonic are organically created through sports,” they added.
Future Shack CEO Jeff Wachtel also went on the record to talk about how sports can be a universal language for world-class storytelling. Wachtel talked about how proud Future Shack is to be partnering with Rapinoe and Bird in what he describes the adaptation as a “bold, sexy, and fun ensemble show.” They added that the TV show will portray all the messiness and occasional frustration that comes with loving the game and the players within it.
Cleat Cute will be the first scripted series for A Touch More. However, the production company aims to develop scripted and unscripted content that amplifies narratives around identity, activism, and underrepresented communities. The studio’s debut project was the four-part audio documentary titled 30 for 30: Pink Card, which premiered on December 8, 2022. The documentary follows the lives of women in Iran fighting for the right to watch soccer.
The release date and cast for the TV adaptation of Cleat Cute has not been announced yet. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates!
This article was originally published on collider.com