Latest in Books

EXCLUSIVE: Village Roadshow Entertainment Group has acquired the rights to Shamim Sarif’s all-female YA thriller novel The Athena Protocol to develop as a television series. Described as Bourne Identity meets Karen McManus, The Athena Protocol follows a young woman who is part of a secret, privately-run all-female…

Scott Steindorff and Dylan Russell’s Stone Village Television has acquired rights to Just Watch Me, a new thriller novel by Dexter author Jeff Lindsay, to develop as a premium television series. David Boies (Won’t You Be My Neighbor, Jane Got a Gun) is attached to produce. Just Watch Me is the first in a new series…

EXCLUSIVE: Legion M has acquired Brian Staveley’s bestselling fantasy epic The Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne and brought Weta Workshop aboard to begin the visual concept work for a one-hour fantasy drama series that will share the title of the bookshelf trilogy’s first entry: The Emperor’s Blades.  The fan-owned…

EXCLUSIVE: HBO Max has put in development Snow Crash, a drama series based on Neal Stephenson’s sci-fi novel, from writer Michael Bacall (21 Jump Street), director Joe Cornish (The Kid Who Would Be King), and Paramount TV. Bacall will pen the adaptation and serve as co-showrunner with Angela Robinson (The L Word)…

EXCLUSIVE: FilmNation Entertainment (Arrival, The Big Sick) is expanding its television slate with the acquisition of Susan Choi’s 2019 National Book Award winner Trust Exercise for development as a limited TV series, with Choi attached to pen the adaptation. Based on the book, Trust Exercise the series is set in an…

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Studios has acquired rights to Kara Richardson Whitely's memoir Gorge: My Journey Up Kilimanjaro at 300 Pounds, and is developing it as a movie with This Is Us star Chrissy Metz, who will produce and possibly star. The producing team also includes PatMa Productions' Denise Di Novi, Nina Tassler and…

EXCLUSIVE: MGM has set Alex Ross Perry to adapt and direct The Dark Half, a new adaptation of the 1989 Stephen King bestseller. Perry popped after writing, directing and producing Her Smell, the drama that premiered at the 2018 Toronto Film Festival, and for which Elisabeth Moss is Spirit Awards-nominated for her…

EXCLUSIVE: Kay Oyegun, who currently serves as a producer and writer on NBC’s hit drama series, This Is Us, has been tapped to write the screenplay for the film adaptation of On the Come Up, the young adult novel by The Hate U Give author Angie Thomas. The project, originally set at Fox 2000 who released 2018’s The Hat…

101 Studios has acquired film and TV rights to Paradise Found, the nonfiction book written by Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke about the small town of Paradise, CA, which was ravaged by the Camp Fire of 2018 but which found hope in its high school football team and longtime coach, Rick Prinz. The…

EXCLUSIVE: Producer Bernard Kira and director-producer Batan Silva have acquired the film and television rights to Alfredo Corchado's best-selling true crime book, Midnight in Mexico: A Reporter’s Journey Through a Country's Descent Into Darkness. Published by Penguin, it was selected by Time Magazine in 2018 as one…

EXCLUSIVE: Greg Silverman's Stampede Ventures has acquired best-selling author Max Seeck's thriller novel The Faithful Reader for a TV series adaptation. The novel, which was published in August in Finland, has been creating buzz internationally ahead of its U.S. release, with rights sold in 35+ countries. The Faithful…

Focus Features and Will Packer Productions are developing When I Was You, a feature adaptation based on the forthcoming book from author Amber Garza. Described as a female-driven thriller, When I Was You centers on Kelly Medina, whose obsession starts on an ordinary fall morning when she gets a call from her son's…