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Perhaps in a Julie & Julia-inspired agenda, Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures TV (in conjunction with HBO) have signed first-look deals with the New York Times for film rights to their column “Modern Love,” which is essentially a weekly romantic comedy-drama bundled into a page or so. Thus, each week the column provides enough ammunition to fuel the romantic comedy genre in the movie business for the next ten years.

Producers Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun are producing an HBO pilot, with Jenny Bicks (Sex and the City) and Alan Poul (Rome, Six Feet Under) directing. The HBO show is “built around the fictionalized male editor of the column who is getting through a messy divorce and returning to the dating world,” while the film deal “gives the film studio first crack at specific ‘Modern Love’ columns that can fuel romantic comedies.”

Berman and Braun will produce the latter as well.

It seems that Columbia and Sony Pictures have stumbled upon a gold mine of material that can be used at their leisure to grab audiences at the drop of a hat. The column seems to be well-written enough to have potential, but now it seems like only a matter of time before Dan Savage is picked up for film rights.