Category Archives: Optioned Books

Guy Ritchie and Warner Bros. Consider Six-Film King Arthur Franchise

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It has been almost 4 years since we first heard that Guy Ritchie was planning on a faithful big screen adaptation of Arthurian legend. Finally, the project appears to be moving forward. According to Deadline, new attempts at bringing the tale to life are being made as the studio is planning a franchise based on King Arthur’s exploits that may ultimately become six separate feature films.

An earlier iteration of the project was to feature a screenplay by John Hodge (Trainspotting) and was to be based directly on Thomas Mallory’s 15th century work “Le Morte d’Arthur” (which itself is divided into eight different books). As Mallory’s compilation of tales is pretty much the definitive source material for Arthurian legend, it’s a good bet that Harold’s screenplay is similarly influenced.

The script or the first film was drafted by Joby Harold and will produce alongside Akiva Goldsman, Tory Tunnell and Lionel Wigram.

Fox in Talks to Pick Up James Frey’s “Endgame”

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"I Am Number Four" Los Angeles Premiere - Arrivals

 (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP Images)

The James Frey YA novel, “Endgame,” has been preemptively picked up for a film adaptation by 20th Century Fox. “Endgame” is the first novel completely written by Frey since the author launched his intellectual property company, Full Fathom Five, in 2009.

The novel is intended to be a series and will be published by Harper Collins. Any deal is likely to be in the seven figures and will include Frey writing the screenplay.

Currently, the plot for “Endgame” is being kept under wraps, although it was described as Hunger Games-like in tone by several sources.

Frey’s Full Fathom Five is intended to be a multiplatform IP generator and saw the author co-create works using a factory-like approach of hiring others to co-write the books. The Lorien Legacies, also known as the I Am Number Four book series, is the company’s highest profile issue.

But with Endgame, Frey will be the sole credited writer.

Frey is most known for the novel, “A Million Little Pieces” and the scandal that surrounded it. The best-selling writer’s fame was tarnished after allegations arose that certain elements were exaggerated in his memoirA Million Little Pieces.

Rainn Wilson Drama “Backstrom” Gets Series Order at Fox

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Rainn Wilson is coming back to television. Fox has picked up his newest series entitled, “Backstrom.” The series was developed by CBS during the 2013-14 pilot season. Fox has ordered 13 episodes, and production will begin early this year. A formal premier date has not yet been announced.

“Backstrom” will be based on the books by Swedish criminologist/novelist Leif G.W. Persson. The hourlong crime drama centers on an overweight, offensive, irascible detective as he tries and fails to change his self-destructive behavior. Wilson stars as Detective Everett Backstrom. This is Wilson’s first television project since his iconic role as Dwight Schrute on “The Office.”

“Bones” executive producer Hart Hanson penned the pilot and will be executive producing via his overall deal with 20th Century Fox Television. Persson and Niclas Salomonsson are also on board as EPs. Mark Mylod (Shameless) directed and exec produced the pilot. Wilson will produce.

“Hart Hanson and Rainn Wilson are the perfect combination of creative vision and onscreen talent to bring this one-of-a-kind character and story like Backstrom to Fox,” said Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly. “I’ve been in business with Hart for a long time, and not only does he have a rare gift for infusing darker themes with relatable humor, he’s one of the best showrunners out there today. Together with Rainn — who absolutely nails this role and makes it a classic FOX character — I think we’ve got something really special here.”

Wilson said,

“I couldn’t be more thrilled to get a chance to dig into Detective Everett Backstrom. For an actor it’s rare to get a crack at a role of such intelligence, humor and complexity. He’s a delightfully disheveled misanthrope with a twisted, brilliant mind and a heart of barbed wire. Truly the role of a lifetime. Hart Hanson is an incredible writer and showrunner and I couldn’t be more excited to collaborate with him. Last but not least, Fox is the perfect home for this fun and disturbed piece of entertainment. They are passionate about the show and I’m ecstatic to be working with Kevin Reilly again — he launched The Office on NBC and fought tooth-and-nail for us to stay on the air, let’s not forget — and to be on the same network as my frenemy, Mindy Kaling.”

Kristoffer Polaha (Life Unexpected), Dennis Haysbert (24) and Page Kennedy are set to co-star.

Fox Options “Influx” For Film

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20th Century Fox has officially optioned the novel “Influx” by Daniel Suarez for the big screen, according to a report from The Hollywood Reporter. The novel, which releases in stores on February 20, is officially described as follows:

Are smart phones really humanity’s most significant innovation since the moon landings? Or can something else explain why the bold visions of the 20th century—fusion power, genetic enhancements, artificial intelligence, cures for common disease, extended human lifespan, and a host of other world-changing advances—have remained beyond our grasp? Why has the high-tech future that seemed imminent in the 1960’s failed to arrive?

Perhaps it did arrive… but only for a select few.

Particle physicist Jon Grady is ecstatic when his team achieves what they’ve been working toward for years: a device that can reflect gravity. Their research will revolutionize the field of physics—the crowning achievement of a career. Grady expects widespread acclaim for his entire team. The Nobel Prize. Instead, his lab is locked down by a shadowy organization whose mission is to prevent at all costs the social upheaval sudden technological advances bring. This Bureau of Technology Control uses the advanced technologies they have harvested over the decades to fulfill their mission.

They are living in our future.

Presented with the opportunity to join the BTC and improve his own technology in secret, Grady resists, and is instead thrown into a nightmarish high-tech prison built to hold rebellious geniuses like himself. With so many great intellects confined together, can Grady and his fellow prisoners conceive of a way to usher humanity out of its artificial dark age?

And if they do, is it possible to defeat an enemy that wields a technological advantage half a century in the making?

Currently, no one is attached to the production of Influx as of yet.

Sony Pictures Classics Acquires Hungarian Hit The Notebook

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Sony Pictures Classics have officially acquired the North American rights to the Hungarian film, The Notebook. The film is an adaptation of the Agota Kristof bestselling novel of the same name. It received The Grand Prix Crystal Globe, the top prize at the 2013 Karlovy Vary Film Festival, where it had its world premiere. The film also received The Europa Cinemas Labels Award, which supports theatrical exhibition in Europe, and had its North American premiere at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival.

Set on the onset of WWII, The Notebook, which stars Ulrich Thomsen and Ulrich Matthes, tells the story of thirteen year old twins abandoned by their parents and forced to live with their cruel grandmother in a village on the Hungarian border. Studying the evil surrounding them, the twins learn to rely on their loyalty to one another, ultimately surviving in the face of challenging circumstances.

The film was the Hungarian entry for Best Foreign Language Film and was directed by Janos Szasz. It was filmed by Academy Award nominated Christian Berger and is produced by Intuit Pictures, in co-production with Hunnia Filmstudio, Amour Fou and Dolce Vita Films.

Szasz said,

“To make this movie was a wonderful and a painful journey for me, like a time machine, took me back into the war time. The jungle of fear and immorality.”

Sony Pictures Classics also commented,

“We have wanted to buy this film following its successful showings at the Toronto Film Festival. We have never really seen a movie quite like this. Based on a famous European novel, The Notebook portrays the World War II experience as a Grimm fairy tale brimming with darkness and foreboding evil. It is fresh, brilliantly told by director Janos Szasz with stunning cinematography by the great Christian Berger. It is great to collaborate again with Dirk Schuerhoff and Beta Cinema with whom we have shared success in the past.”

First Still From Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

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Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

The first official still from the upcoming Walt Disney film, “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,” has been released. The children’s book written by Judith Viorst was adapted by director Miguel Arteta and screenwriter Rob Lieber.

“Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,” follows the exploits of 11-year-old Alexander as he experiences the most terrible and horrible day of his young life—a day that begins with gum stuck in his hair, followed by one calamity after another. But when Alexander tells his upbeat family about the misadventures of his disastrous day, he finds little sympathy and begins to wonder if bad things only happen to him. He soon learns that he’s not alone when his brother, sister, mom and dad all find themselves living through their own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Anyone who says there is no such thing as a bad day just hasn’t had one.

The big screen adaptation of the beloved story features an all-star cast including Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner, Dylan Minnette, Kerris Dorsey, Ed Oxenbould, Megan Mullally, Jennifer Coolidge and Bella Thorne.

“Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” will hit theaters on October 10, 2014.

Fox 2000 to Adapt Robert Crais’ “Suspect”

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The newest Robert Crais novel, “Suspect,” has been optioned by Fox 2000. According to the Hollywood Reporter, David DiGilio (Eight Below) will provide the screenplay with Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson producing. Crais, the outlet notes, has adamantly prevented feature adaptations of his works in the past. In the case of “Suspect,” his decision to permit the big screen version is said to be largely based on how impressed he has been with The Color Forces’ handling of The Hunger Games franchise.

“Suspect” was published earlier this year and is described as follows:

LAPD cop Scott James is not doing so well. Eight months ago, a shocking nighttime assault by unidentified men killed his partner Stephanie, nearly killed him, and left him enraged, ashamed, and ready to explode. He is unfit for duty—until he meets his new partner.

Maggie is not doing so well, either. A German shepherd who survived three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan sniffing explosives before losing her handler to an IED, her PTSD is as bad as Scott’s.

They are each other’s last chance. Shunned and shunted to the side, they set out to investigate the one case that no one wants them to touch: the identity of the men who murdered Stephanie. What they begin to find is nothing like what Scott has been told, and the journey will take them both through the darkest moments of their own personal hells. Whether they will make it out again, no one can say.

Sofia Coppola and Andrew Durham to Co-Write Fairyland

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Alysia Abbott’s critically acclaimed memoir, “Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father” has been officially optioned for film by American Zoetrope. The company has added Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, The Bling Ring) and Roman Coppola (The Darjeeling Limited, Moonrise Kingdom) as producers of the film.

“Fairyland” is described as coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of San Francisco’s vibrant cultural scene in the 1970s and ’80s, both before and after the AIDS epidemic, a crisis that would later claim the life of Abbott’s father, Steve Abbott, a widowed poet and gay activist.

Sofia Coppola said,

“I love the book Fairyland; it’s a sweet and unique love story of a girl and her dad, both growing up together in 1970’s San Francisco. I think it will make an engaging and touching movie on a subject I’ve never seen before.”

The book’s author, Abbott, said,

“I’m delighted that Sofia Coppola and Zoetrope are going to create the film version of Fairyland. Sofia’s understanding of the feminine perspective and the artistic vision that she shares with Andrew Durham make them ideal partners to make this movie. I could not be happier.”

MTV and Sonar Developing TV Series Based on Shannara

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The international best-selling fantasy series, “Shannara,” is getting a small screen adaptation. The long-loved series written by Terry Brooks, has been optioned by MTV and Sonar Entertainment to create a television series. Jon Favreau will direct and executive produce and Al Gough and Miles Millar (“Smallville,” Spider-Man 2) will write and executive produce if the project goes to series. Terry Brooks and Dan Farah will also serve as executive producers.

The “Shannara” series is set in our world, thousands of years after the destruction of our civilization. The story is centered on the Shannara family, whose descendants are empowered with ancient magic and whose adventures continuously reshape the future of the world. Should the show go to series, producers plan to base the show’s first season on “The Elfstones of Shannara,” the second title in the series, a fan favorite which spent 16 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list and is accredited with cementing the series place in the fantasy world.

The books continue to be esteemed by fans and critics alike. They are estimated to be the highest-selling un-adapted fantasy book series in the world. Terry Brooks is considered to be the second highest-selling living fantasy author, after “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling. More than thirty years after the release of the first “Shannara” novel, Terry Brooks’ latest additions to the series continue to be international best sellers. Another three books are set to be published in 2014.

President of MTV Programming Susanne Daniels said

“I am thrilled to be working with the ‘Smallville’ creators Al and Miles again along with the amazingly talented Jon Favreau. We feel that the Shannara novels are a perfect fit for MTV as this type of fantasy genre has continuously proved to resonate with our audience.”

Sonar Entertainment CEO Stewart Till added,

“This collaboration with MTV, combined with the amazing creative talent attached to this project, including our existing relationship with Terry Brooks and Dan Farah of Farah Films, gives us tremendous confidence that we have a potential hit property with appeal to audiences worldwide. This deal also reflects Sonar’s emerging strategy to become a leading supplier of groundbreaking series programming.”

Author Brooks commented on the upcoming project saying,

“I believe we have formed the perfect team to bring ‘Shannara’ to life on-screen. The adaptation of these books is very important to me, and I believe we are on the right track in our endeavor to create an epic television series that both new and old fans of the books will love.”

Diary of Anne Frank To Become Animated Film (for some reason?)

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Nothing conveys the immense tragedy of the Holocaust like an animated version of characters. Right? According to the Hollywood Reporter, the famous memoir, “The Diary of Anne Frank,” is about to become an animated film by writer/director Ari Folman, the man behind 2008’s Oscar-nominated animated documentary Waltz With Bashir and this year’s live-action/animation hybrid The Congress.

In order to make the film, Folman and his co-producer, Diane Elbaum, have been granted unlimited access to all the archives of the Anne Frank Foundation in Basel, Switzerland, and its branches around the world.

Folman defends the project saying,

“Bringing the Anne Frank Diary to all screens is a fantastic opportunity and challenge. There is a real need for new artistic material to keep the memory alive for younger generations.”

We can at least count on one thing. The animated feature will look gorgeous. Based on his previous works such as “The Book Thief” and “Grave of the Fireflies” we know that his work has always been stunning and resonating with emotional responses.

“The Diary of a Young Girl” (also known as “The Diary of Anne Frank”) is a book of the writings from the Dutch language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was apprehended in 1944 and Anne Frank ultimately died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The diary was retrieved by Miep Gies, who gave it to Anne’s father, Otto Frank, the only known survivor of the family. The diary has now been published in more than 60 different languages.