Sapphic sport rom-com TV series based on novel Cleat Cute gets huge update
Cleat Cute is the sapphic answer to Heated Rivalry. (Piatkus)
Cleat Cute is the sapphic answer to Heated Rivalry. (Image: Piatkus)
A TV series inspired by Meryl Wilsner’s bestselling sapphic football romance novel Cleat Cute is in development at Amazon MGM Studios under the title Playing the Field. Wilsner shared the update, which was first reported by Deadline, in an Instagram post, praising the team behind the adaptation.
Playing the Field is described as an ensemble comedy following four players on a professional women’s football team, Crescent City, based in New Orleans. The will-they-won’t-they relationship between Grace Henderson and Phoebe Matthews is set to be central to the storyline.
Sarah Tapscott is attached as writer and showrunner, as well as executive producer. Former basketball player Sue Bird and former footballer Megan Rapinoe are on board as executive producers too, alongside Jeff Wachtel and Jared Berenholz with Future Shack Entertainment, Camille Bernier-Green, Emily Rasenick, and Wilsner.
No release date has been confirmed as of yet.
Wilsner wrote on Instagram: “When I tell you this could not be in better hands, I mean it… I’m so excited to see where [Sarah Tapscott] takes my favourite fictional soccer lesbians.”
What is Cleat Cute about?
In the novel’s set-up, Grace Henderson has been a star of the US women’s soccer team for a decade, until an injury sidelines her.
Phoebe Matthews, an up-and-comer, takes her spot, and the pair develop a connection while competing for the same position as they prepare for the World Cup.
The TV adaptation shifts the focus to an ensemble of four teammates, keeping Grace and Phoebe’s romance as the emotional grab.
Who’s behind Playing the Field?
Tapscott has previously worked on The Sex Lives of College Girls, The Big Leap and New Girl, and is a co-executive producer on Not Suitable For Work.
Wilsner is known for writing queer romance with happily-ever-afters, including Something to Talk About, Mistakes Were Made and My Best Friend’s Honeymoon.
Bird and Rapinoe are both openly gay, and Rapinoe announced her retirement from football after the World Cup.
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