EXCLUSIVE: Amazon MGM Studios has landed the rights to Liz Tomforde’s bestselling Windy City book series, with an eye toward development of a TV series.

Alison McDonald is on board to write and exec produce, with Premeditated Productions set to produce under its first-look deal with the studio. Liz Pelletier and Sherryl Clark from Premeditated will EP, with SVP of Television Julie Jarmon on as co-EP and pointing the project for Premeditated. Tomforde will exec produce, as well.

Kicking off with 2022’s Mile High, Windy City is a five-book interconnected sports romance series that follows a close-knit group of five professional athletes as they each navigate falling for the strong, complicated women who unexpectedly enter their lives and challenge them in all the right ways. The series has sold millions of copies worldwide, received over a billion page reads on Kindle, sold in 30 countries, and been translated into 21 languages.

A New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling sports romance author, Tomforde recently published In Her Own League, a Windy City series spinoff following major league baseball’s first female team owner and Chicago’s favorite coach, also announcing a four-book series titled Wilder Woods, centered on Northern California athletics.

She told us, “I started writing Mile High while working as a flight attendant for a professional hockey team. What started as a personal passion project has turned into a career that I truly never thought was possible. And now, thanks to Premeditated Productions and Amazon Studios, it’s becoming something bigger than I ever dreamed. Soon readers who fell in love with my characters will get to watch their stories step off the page and unfold on screen.”

An Emmy, BAFTA, NAACP Image, and WGA Award-nominated writer, McDonald’s credits include the Netflix dark comedy Russian Doll, Showtime’s Your Honor and Nurse Jackie, the critically acclaimed remake of Roots, and the long-running animated series American Dad. She also created, directed, and executive produced the lauded Amazon special American Girl Story: Summer Camp and co-created the Netflix children’s animated series Karma’s World. She has also received the prestigious Humanitas Prize for her work and is repped by TFC Management.

Premeditated’s TV slate also includes Fourth Wing, Stormbreaker, and Lux at Amazon MGM and Assistant to the Villain at Legendary, complementing feature projects Shield of Sparrows, A Stage Set for Villains, Dragon Cursed, and Repeat After Me — all set up at Amazon MGM — and The Marriage Bargain at 20th Century Studios. The company announced an extension of its first-look deal at Amazon in March. They are repped by IAG and Caitlin DiMotta at TroyGould PC.