Category Archives: Optioned Books

The Engagements Eyed By Reese Witherspoon To Produce

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Fox 2000 recently announced their plans to adapt the forthcoming novel, “The Engagements,” written by J. Courtney Sullivan. The novel is set for release on June 11th but it appeares that Reese Witherspoon is already eyeing to produce the big screen adaptation.

The official description of the novel is as follows:

Evelyn has been married to her husband for forty years—forty years since he slipped off her first wedding ring and put his own in its place. Delphine has seen both sides of love—the ecstatic, glorious highs of seduction, and the bitter, spiteful fury that descends when it’s over. James, a paramedic who works the night shift, knows his wife’s family thinks she could have done better; while Kate, partnered with Dan for a decade, has seen every kind of wedding—beach weddings, backyard weddings, castle weddings—and has vowed never, ever, to have one of her own.

As these lives and marriages unfold in surprising ways, we meet Frances Gerety, a young advertising copywriter in 1947. Frances is working on the De Beers campaign and she needs a signature line, so, one night before bed, she scribbles a phrase on a scrap of paper: “A Diamond Is Forever.” And that line changes everything.

Witherspoon will reportedly produce alongside Bruna Papandrea.

Goosebumps Film Adaptation Is One Step Closer With New Director

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“Goosebumps,” the popular horror book series from R.L. Stine looks to be one step closer for its next adaptation. The film project was first announced that it was in development wayyyy back in 2008 with Columbia Pictures, but has since stalled. Today it was announced that the project seems to have finally found a director. Deadline reports that Monsters vs. Aliens and Gulliver’s Travels director Rob Letterman is in talks to helm the brand new adaptation. Continue reading

A World of Ice and Fire Comes To Android

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Just in time for the upcoming third season of HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” the George R.R Martin of Game of Thrones fame has just released the Android version of the companion iOS app, A World of Ice and Fire.

This new Android version contains updated material that will soon be added to the current iOS version as well. This includes:

  • New Profiles for the Men of the Night’s Watch, Brotherhood Without Banners, and the Free Folk
  • 30 new illustrations for key places
  • The ability to search for characters by alias (so you can find Tyrion by searching for “The Imp”)
  • Further improvements to the anti-spoiler and map functionality

George R.R. Martin’s World of Ice and Fire already includes:

  • Anti-spoiler functionality that you can customize based on where you are in the book cycle to prevent you from seeing spoilers
  • 540+ character profiles with detailed historical bios, family and house information, book appearances, and corresponding actor roles
  • 380+ place profiles with descriptions for castles, towns, regions, geographical features and more
  • Fully interactive versions of all the official maps from the “A Song of Ice and Fire” Cycle.
  • Completely new text written specially for this app by Elio M. García, Jr. and Linda Antonsson of Westeros.org – the premier fan site for the A Song of Ice and Fire cycle.

You can download the Android App or The iOS App and be prepared for the upcoming season beginning March 31, 2013.

Legendary Pictures Options Soon To Be Published Novel “Brilliance”

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It was recently reported by The Hollywood Reporter that Joe Roth and Palek Patel have bought the film rights to the novel, “Brilliance” by Marcus Sakey. They have bought the rights and set up the film’s development deal with Legendary Pictures.

“Brilliance” has not yet been published but is scheduled to be released this summer. This purchase continues a trend of Hollywood Studios buying unpublished novels that they believe will be a big hit – before another studio gets the chance to cash in on its popularity.

The official description of the novel is as follows:

In Wyoming, a little girl reads people’s darkest secrets by the way they fold their arms. In New York, a man sensing patterns in the stock market racks up $300 billion. In Chicago, a woman can go invisible by being where no one is looking. They’re called “brilliants,” and since 1980, one percent of people have been born this way. Nick Cooper is among them; a federal agent, Cooper has gifts rendering him exceptional at hunting terrorists. His latest target may be the most dangerous man alive, a brilliant drenched in blood and intent on provoking civil war. But to catch him, Cooper will have to violate everything he believes in—and betray his own kind.

Patel and Roth are most known for their recent work on the recently released film, Oz The Great and Powerful. Sakey also appears to have extensive knowledge on the subject of crime. To conduct research for his plots, he has shadowed homicide detectives and gang cops, and interviewed soldiers, among other things. His debut novel, The Blade Itself, was featured as a New York Times Editor’s Pick and named one of Esquire Magazine’s 5 Best Reads of 2007.

Ben Affleck bought the film rights to The Blade Itself in 2008 for his production company. The film rights to his second and third novels, Good People and At the City’s Edge, have also been bought.

There is no word yet on when this project will start production or a projected release date.

“So Cold the River” To Be Adapted By Ben Coccio

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New Regency recently announced that they would be working on adapting Michael Koryta’s “So Cold the River,” for the big screen. Now, they have hired Ben Coccio, one of the writers behind this month’s The Place Beyond the Pines, to pen the upcoming adaptation.

“So Cold The River” was published in 2010 and follows the tale of a beautiful woman and a challenge.

As a gift for her husband, Alyssa Bradford approaches Eric Shaw to make a documentary about her father-in-law, Campbell Bradford, a 95-year-old millionaire whose past is wrapped in mystery. Eric grabs the job even though there are few clues to the man’s story—just the name of his hometown and an antique water bottle he’s kept his entire life.

In Bradford’s hometown, Eric discovers an extraordinary history—a glorious domed hotel where movie stars, presidents, athletes, and mobsters once mingled, and mineral springs whose miraculous waters were reputed to cure everything from insomnia to malaria. Neglected for years, the resort has been restored to its former grandeur just in time for Eric’s stay.

Just hours after his arrival, Eric experiences a frighteningly vivid vision. As the days pass, the frequency and intensity of his hallucinations increase and draw Eric deeper into the area’s dark history. He discovers that something besides the historic resort town has been restored—a long-forgotten evil that will stop at nothing to regain its lost glory. Brilliantly imagined and terrifyingly real, So Cold the River is a tale of irresistible suspense with a racing, unstoppable current.

The project has not yet hired a director and there is no word yet on who is expected to star in the film. However, both Kevin Misher and Scott Silver have signed on to produce.

Rules of Civility Adaptation Heading To The Big Screen

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Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber has officially signed on to double team the screenwriting duties for the upcoming film adaptation of Armor Towles’ period novel, Rules of Civility, for Lionsgate.

The novel, which was published in 2011, is officially described as follows:

Set in New York City in 1938, Rules of Civility tells the story of a watershed year in the life of an uncompromising twenty-five-year-old named Katey Kontent. Armed with little more than a formidable intellect, a bracing wit, and her own brand of cool nerve, Katey embarks on a journey from a Wall Street secretarial pool through the upper echelons of New York society in search of a brighter future.

The story opens on New Year’s Eve in a Greenwich Village jazz bar, where Katey and her boardinghouse roommate Eve happen to meet Tinker Grey, a handsome banker with royal blue eyes and a ready smile. This chance encounter and its startling consequences cast Katey off her current course, but end up providing her unexpected access to the rarified offices of Conde Nast and a glittering new social circle. Befriended in turn by a shy, principled multimillionaire, an Upper East Side ne’er-do-well, and a single-minded widow who is ahead of her times, Katey has the chance to experience first hand the poise secured by wealth and station, but also the aspirations, envy, disloyalty, and desires that reside just below the surface. Even as she waits for circumstances to bring Tinker back into her orbit, she will learn how individual choices become the means by which life crystallizes loss.

The duo recently finished their other adaptation, The Spectacular Now, with the film version set to hit theaters on August 2. There is no word yet on who is expected to star in the film or a projected release date for the project.

Tina Fey and Jason Bateman In Negotiations For “This Is Where I Leave You” Adaptation

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Tina Fey may have finished up with “30 Rock” but that doesn’t mean she is necessarily slowing down. The actress is currently in negotiations with Jason Bateman to star in the upcoming big screen adaptation of This Is Where I Leave You, a Warner Bros.’ adaptation of the book by Jonathan Tropper. Continue reading

Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams’ YA Novel “Tunnels” Signs Director

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Relativity Media announced today that their adaptation of Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams’ YA Novel “Tunnels” has found its director. The company has officially signed on Mikael Håfström, known for his work on The Tomb and 1408, to direct a film based on the New York Times‘ best-selling, internationally-acclaimed fantasy adventure book series.

The script for the adaptation is coming from Andrew Lobel and is based on the adapted screenplay originally written by Joel Bergvall & Simon Sandquist.

The series takes place beneath the streets of London, two teenage boys discover an incredible, hidden underground world where a secret civilization has been desperately waiting for a hero to save them all. The deeper they go, the closer they get to unearthing an evil that could destroy the world above and put an end to the lives they once lived.

“Tunnels” is the film adaptation of the first installment of the novel series from Scholastic/Chicken House publishing, by authors Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams, which has sold over one million copies and has been published in nearly forty countries worldwide. The authors have already almost completed the series with five sequels written and the sixth and final one to be released this fall.

The property was unearthed by Barry Cunningham, the man credited with discovering “Harry Potter” creator J.K. Rowling and whose boutique Chicken House imprint is part of Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books and the U.S. publisher of the “Harry Potter” and “The Hunger Games” series.

“Only a few times in my life have I felt that rush of imagination in a story that I know is going to sweep up an audience in its grip, ‘Tunnels’ made me believe in adventure, bravery and a new world,” said Cunningham.

Ellie Berger, President, Scholastic Trade, said,

“Barry Cunningham clearly has a keen eye for spotting authors whose epic stories appeal to readers of all ages around the globe. Scholastic is proud to be the American publisher of the bestselling ‘Tunnels’ series, and we look forward to seeing this underground and imaginative world expand through film.”

There is no word yet on a projected release date for the film or who the studio is looking at to cast in the adaption.

Sci-Fi YA Novel, Arclight, Heading To The Silver Screen

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YA sci-fi and supernatural adaptations are all the rage right now and Universal is not missing a beat. the company recently picked up the film rights to the novel, “Arclight” written by Josin L. McQuein. Currently, Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer will produce while Matthew Sand, best known for writing the 2009 Wachowski-produced action movie Ninja Assassin, will pen the screenplay.

“Arclight” is a sci-fi tale set in a post-apocalyptic future. Naturally, humanity has hunkered down in an outpost that is surrounded by a wall of light (aptly named Arclight). What lies out in the darkness? Creatures only known as the Fade. Into this enclave enters a lone teenage girl with no memory of who she is and how she survived in what is called the Dark but one who holds the key to its survival.

The YA novel has not yet been released but is set to hit shelves on April 23, 2013. Optioning not yet released novels seems to be the next big step for studios has they fight for the next “Twilight” or “The Hunger Games” franchise.

“Arclight” seems to have a lot of support other than being optioned so early on. The publisher, Greenwillow Books, initially made a large investment in the novel by paying McQuein $500,000 in 2011 in a two-book deal.

Pouya Shahbazian of New Leaf Literary & Media will produce with Grazer. Imagine’s Erica Huggins and Sarah Bowen will exec produce. Universal’s vp of production Maradith Frenkel and creative executive Chloe Yellin will oversee the project.

There is no word on when the project will begin production or a projected release date for the finished film.

Bradley Cooper To Star In Dark Invasion Adaptation

 

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Warner Bros. recently acquired the film rights to the upcoming novel from Howard Blum entitled, “Dark Invasion.” The deal closed as a high six figure negotiation and is planned as a vehicle for star Oscar-nominated actor Bradley Cooper. The nonfiction book will be published by Crown/Random on 9/11/13. The date is significant, as the book is about what is considered the first attacks on U.S. soil since its formative years. Continue reading