Latest in Books

EXCLUSIVE: In a deal worth $500,000 against $1.5 million, Legendary Entertainment has optioned Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s nonfiction book Nuclear War: A Scenario as a potential reteam with its Dune: Part Two director Denis Villeneuve. The expectation is that Villeneuve would take this one as…

EXCLUSIVE: USA Today bestselling author Shawn M. Warner’s Leigh Howard and the Ghosts of Simmons-Pierce Manor has been optioned by Stars Collective, which will explore film and TV adaptations of the bestselling YA novel. Described as R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps meets Nancy Drew, Leigh Howard is the…

EXCLUSIVE: Universal TV has acquired rights to Liza Palmer's latest book Family Reservations, which it will develop at NBC with writer/executive producer Ilene Chaiken and Keshet Studios. The book, which publishes today, follows culinary pioneer and world-renowned restaurateur Maren Winter, who is…

EXCLUSIVE: Big Beach, the production company behind Starz's Vida and Facebook's Sorry For Your Loss, has landed television rights to Alexandra Tanner's debut novel Worry. Worry follows two siblings-turned-roommates, one a 28-year-old media employee, navigating an absurd world on the verge of…

EXCLUSIVE: Universal Television has acquired the rights to adapt the Rebel Blue Ranch series of books from author Lyla Sage.  The series — Done and Dusted, Swift and Saddled, and Lost and Lassoed – is from The Dial Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Each book follows a different pair of…

Scott Derrickson has been set to direct an adaptation of Davis Grubb’s classic 1953 novel The Night of the Hunter for Universal Pictures, working from his script written with C. Robert Cargill, his longtime collaborator on The Black Phone, Doctor Strange and other projects. Peter Gethers will produce…

Universal International Studios has jumped back into the UK books market for another TV development. In another “highly competitive situation,” the Universal Studio Group subsidiary has acquired rights to develop British author Christie Watson’s novel Moral Injuries as a television…

Vernor Vinge, whose expansive science fiction brought the concepts of The Singularity and cyberspace to a wider audience, died from Parkinson’s disease at age 79 on March 20 in La Jolla, California. The confirmation came in a Facebook tribute from fellow author David Brin. “A titan in the literary…

The hunt for book IP continues to drive business. Following what’s been described as a “highly competitive situation,” Universal International Studios (UIS) has bought the rights to author Lucy Foley’s latest novel, The Midnight Feast. The Universal Studio Group (USG)-owned UIS will develop a TV…

EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation, Rain and Boilermaker Entertainment have acquired the rights to Lindy Ryan's anticipated horror-mystery novel, Bless Your Heart, which will be published by St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books on April 9. Rain and Boilermaker are packaging the project for television and…

EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation, Lion Forge Entertainment has won the rights to Sarah Mlynowski’s New York Times bestselling tween book series Best Wishes, tapping Eydie Faye (The Slumber Party) to adapt the first installment of the same name for film. The intention is to build a multi-picture…

EXCLUSIVE: WME has upped Eve Attermann to partner in the books department. Atterman, who has been with WME since 2011, has worked across departments to help agency clients cross over into the book space including thought leaders, journalists, novelists, memoirists, musicians, politicians, and chefs…