EXCLUSIVE: Sophia Stallone‘s Callisto Media and Sylvester Stallone’s Balboa Productions are teaming up on Bourbon & Lies, a romantic suspense series for MGM Television, based on the bestselling book series by Victoria Wilder.
Set in Fiasco, Kentucky, Bourbon & Lies follows ex-cop Grant Foxx, a man trying to keep his life quiet after leaving the force, and Laney Young, a beautiful stranger who arrives in town with too many lies and too much danger behind her. When Laney begins working at the Foxx family distillery, she pulls Grant back into a world of instinct, suspicion and desire. What begins as distrust turns into something far more combustible as their pasts collide, the town’s mythology darkens, and the truth threatens to burn through everything they are trying to protect.
Bourbon & Lies will be produced by Callisto Media & Balboa Productions, with D. Matt Geller overseeing for the latter company. Meredith Lavender and Marcie Ulin, who showran and exec produced HBO Max’s hit series The Flight Attendant for its first season, are the show’s creators and will exec produce. Sophia Stallone, who originated the project for television and brought the IP to Balboa, will produce through Callisto, continuing her focus on female-driven literary adaptations with strong genre hooks.
Watch on Deadline
Marking the first book in Wilder’s Bourbon Boys series, Bourbon & Lies was an Amazon No. 1 bestseller that released with Bloom Books in 2024. Contemporary romance author Wilder has sold international rights to the books in more than a dozen territories, with the spin-off series The Whiskey Women launching with Rumors & Whiskey this past June.
In a statement to Deadline, Sophia Stallone said, “Bourbon & Lies was the kind of world I could immediately see on screen. It has romance, danger, heat, humor, family, mystery and a woman at the center whose past refuses to stay buried. I brought it to Balboa because it felt like exactly the kind of bold, addictive and emotionally charged storytelling female audiences are already driving into the mainstream.”
Wilder told us, “It’s truly an exciting time to witness book to screen adaptations within the romance genre. Seeing these characters and their stories brought to life on screen is something I had never expected. I truly feel lucky that this powerhouse team of women are the ones making it happen. There’s no doubt in my mind that they’re ready to deliver everyone’s next series obsession.”
In addition to their work alongside Steve Yockey on The Flight Attendant, Lavender and Ulin apreviously exec produced ABC’s Nashville, earning a WGA nomination for New Series, with additional credits including The Gifted, Covert Affairs, Charlie’s Angels, Missing, Defying Gravity and The Lake. Active across the thriller, romance, mystery and action genres, they’re under a first-look deal with MGM Television, and are now serving as consulting producers on Amazon’s upcoming romance Rose Hill.
Of their draw to Bourbon & Lies, the duo said, “Victoria has created a world that is sexy, dangerous, funny and emotionally loaded. We’re so excited to be developing this with Sophia, Matt, and the entire team at MGM.”
Balboa Productions and Sophia Stallone are represented by Independent Artist Group and Kleinberg Lange Cuddy & Carlo. Lavender and Ulin are repped by Range, CAA and Yorn Levine. Wilder is with Independent Artist Group and Lesley Sabga at The Seymour Agency.
