Sophia Stallone’s Callisto Media and Sylvester Stallone’s Balboa Productions have teamed up to develop Victoria Wilder’s bestselling romantic suspense novel, Bourbon & Lies, as a TV series for MGM Television, and the author herself is absolutely over the moon about it.
Wilder shared the news on Instagram with a statement that captures exactly why this adaptation feels so personal:
“The world of Fiasco, Ky has been so vivid in my mind for so long. Seeing these characters and their stories brought to life on screen is something I had never expected. I truly feel lucky that such a powerhouse team are the ones making it happen.”
What Is Bourbon & Lies?
The world Victoria Wilder built in Fiasco, Kentucky is one of those fictional small towns that feels so specific and so lived-in that you forget it isn’t real. At the center of it sits one of the most compelling family mythologies in recent romantic suspense fiction.
The official synopsis sets the stage perfectly:
In Fiasco, Kentucky, there is one rule: never fall for a Foxx brother. Any woman who did, ended up dead—or so the rumor goes. Townies call it a curse. But I’ve lived it, and I won’t survive it again.
The series follows ex-cop Grant Foxx, a man doing his best to keep his life quiet and his family’s bourbon distillery running after leaving the force.
His quiet life is upended when a stranger named Laney Young arrives in town carrying more secrets than luggage. When Laney begins working at the Foxx family distillery, she pulls Grant back into a world of instinct, suspicion, and desire.
What begins as mutual distrust slowly becomes something far more combustible as their pasts collide and the town’s mythology closes in around them.
It is a story about a family curse, a town that holds its secrets close, and two people who should absolutely know better.
Reviewers have praised its easygoing and bingeable pacing, with enough tension and suspense running underneath to keep readers up well past midnight. The Jeeves Reads blog gave it five stars and described it as exactly the kind of series you can sink into completely.
The series continues with Bourbon & Secrets and Bourbon & Proof, each following a different Foxx brother while remaining deeply interconnected. Once Fiasco gets its hooks into you, there is plenty of story waiting on the other side.
The Powerhouse Team Behind the TV Adaptation
The production setup here is genuinely impressive. I mean, the showrunner attachment alone should have romantic suspense fans very excited.
Sophia Stallone described her reaction to the material in a statement that gets right to the point:
“Bourbon & Lies was the kind of world I could immediately see on screen.”
Callisto Media, Sophia Stallone’s company, originated the project for television, then brought it to Balboa Productions, where D. Matt Geller is overseeing for the latter company. But the most exciting piece of the creative team is the showrunner duo.
Meredith Lavender and Marcie Ulin, who are serving as creators and executive producers, are the team behind HBO Max’s first season of The Flight Attendant, one of the most propulsive, stylish, tonally precise romantic thrillers in recent television history.
Their understanding of how to build a show that is simultaneously funny, dangerous, emotionally loaded, and deeply female-centered is exactly what Bourbon & Lies needs.
Lavender and Ulin were direct about what drew them to Wilder’s world:
“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.”
No cast has been announced, and no network or release date has been confirmed yet. The project is in early development at MGM Television, with the full shape of the series still to be determined.
Read It Before Fiasco Comes to Your Screen
Bourbon & Lies is available now, and the entire Bourbon Boys trilogy is complete. This means that you can read all three back to back without waiting for anything. If you ask me, that is genuinely a gift.
Start with Grant and Laney.
Let Fiasco, Kentucky pull you in with the distillery, the curse, the town gossip, and the slow burn that refuses to stay slow. Then move on to Bourbon & Secrets and Bourbon & Proof, and spend time with the rest of the Foxx brothers before Lavender and Ulin start making casting decisions on your behalf.
We cannot wait to see what Fiasco looks like on screen. Until then, the books are right there waiting!
More Book Adaptations: