MOVIES
The Gaumont Film Company has acquired Paranoia by suspense novelist Joseph Finder and hired Barry Levy to write the screen adaptation. Finder's High Crimes was previously adapted for a movie starring Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd.
The movie based on Ken Bruen's London Boulevard has added Ray Winstone, Anna Friel, and David Thewlis to the cast. They join the already-announced Colin Farell and Keira Knightly.
Several novel-to-film rights were announced recently:
- Fox 2000 acquired the screen rights to Patricia Cornwell's bestselling books featuring medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta to develop as a vehicle for Angelina Jolie.
- Henry Chang's Chinatown Beat (with Detective Jack Yu) were optioned to Silverock Films.
- Stanley Evans's Seaweed on the Street, in which a Native American community cop combines crime sleuthing with Coast Salish mythology, was optioned on behalf of Full Regalia Enterprises.
- The rights to Michael McClelland's Oyster Blues, depicting an English professor/P.I. and a waitress who are on the run thinking that they are wanted for murder, was sold to producer Jon Judelson (of The Inventors fame).
TV
ABC picked up 13 episodes of Copper, a Canadian co-production revolving around five rookie cops
Lifetime Network is adding a number of new dramas and movies:
- The Fallen (working title), based on T. Jefferson Parker's novel of the same name, from executive producer McG (The OC, Charlie's Angels) and executive producers/writers Ed Decter and John Strauss (Head Over Heels).
- Murder in Suburbia, the detective series formatted from the popular British series, written and executive produced by Jon Maas (True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet).
- Two murder-mystery franchise movies based on Ellen Byerrum's popular Crimes of Fashion novels Killer Hair and Hostile Makeover, with Mark Consuelos (Hope & Faith), Maggie Lawson (Psych), Mario Cantone (Sex and the City) and Mary McDonnell (TV's Battlestar Galactica), to debut in July.
- They join the already-announced At Risk and The Front, both based on Patricia Cornwell novels, slated for broadcast in 2010.
WEB/RADIO
Public Radio's To the Best of Our Knowledge featured a program with Michael Chabon talking about writing that transcend genres; Judith Freeman was interviewed about her book The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved; author M.C. Beaton and Matthew Prichard, Agatha Christie's grandson, discussed the joys of the English "cosy" and the quality of Christie's plotting; and Richard Price talked about his crime-novel-that's-not-a-crime-novel, Lush Life.
NPR chatted with Marc Blatte about his debut novel Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed which has been billed as "hip hop noir."
Walter Mosley was interviewed on Minnesota Public Radio.
David Ewen (who also operates Book World News with USA Today) has started a televised program called "Morning Coffee" on the web to promote authors, publishers, writers, and book sellers.
Borders has made a 10-minute movie about Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. In honor of the next Plum book, Finger Lickin' Fifteen, Borders is encouraging fans to make their own Plum videos of 2 to 10 minutes, post them on YouTube and notify Borders of the URL. Borders will then share some of them with other Borders customers on its website and via the Borders Shortlist e-mail.
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