BookTok rejoice! Crave’s Jacob Tierney-created adaptation of Rachel Reid’s gay hockey romance novel, Heated Rivarly, has sold to HBO Max in the U.S. and Australia, Bell Media announced Wednesday.
The six-episode series centers around two rival professional hockey players – Canadian-born Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) of the fictitious Montreal Voyageurs and Russian-born Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) of the fictitious Boston Bears – as they navigate a secret fling that lasts years. Letterkenny alumni Tierney and Brendan Brady are showrunning the series from Accent Aigu Entertainment.
HBO Max has acquired the series to air parallel to its Crave release in Canada following the premiere on Nov. 28. The Canadian entertainment company also announced the series will air on Sky in New Zealand and Moviestar Plus+ in Spain. Sphere Abacus, which Bell Media acquired earlier this year, handled the sale.
“Heated Rivarly is premium, high-caliber content that resonates with global audiences,” Bell Media’s vice president of content development and programming Justin Stockman said in a release. “These international sales are a testament to Accent Aigu Entertainment’s vision for Rachel Reid’s story and underscore the strength of our partnership with Sphere Abacus, and our shared commitment to bringing compelling, buzzyworthy content to viewers worldwide.”
The show’s source material is the second in a string of gay hockey romance novels by Reid that are all set in the same universe. A synopsis from Heated Rivalry’s producers reads: “Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov are two of the biggest stars in Major League Hockey, bound by ambition, rivalry and a magnetic pull neither of them fully understands. What begins as a secret fling between two confused teenagers at 17 evolves into a years-long journey of love, denial, and self-discovery. Over the next eight years, as they chase glory on the ice, they struggle to navigate their feelings off of it. Torn between the sport they live for and the love they can’t ignore, Shane and Ilya must decide if there’s room in their fiercely competitive world for something as fragile — and powerful — as real love.”
Heated Rivalry is executive produced by Tierney and Brady, with Reid serving as a consulting producer. The series premieres on Crave and HBO Max on Nov. 28.
