Nicholas Sparks’s new novel, for publication in fall 2009, is being written simultaneously with the author’s own adaptation of that story as a starring vehicle for Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus (Offspring Entertainment is producing, for Walt Disney Pictures). Sparks had pitched “a premise for a novel that intrigued Cyrus, her family and the producers,” Variety says, though no details are being shared. Sparks says, “This is similar to the way it’s gone with movies based on my novels; it’s just out of order. Certain opportunities garner your interest, and this was one of those.”Variety
Archives for September 2008
People
Deborah Darrock has been named vp, associate publisher of Atria Books and Washington Square Press, reporting to Judith Curr. She moves over from the Simon & Schuster imprint, where she has been vp, associate publisher. Melville House has hired Daniel O’Connor for the new position of managing editor. His experience includes almost ten years at Thunder’s Mouth Press. Most recently, with Neil Ortenberg he co-produced and co-directed the documentary Obscene, a look at the life and work of Grove Press founder Barney Rosset. Chronicle Books has hired Emily Haynes as editor, specializing in pop culture, humor, and media tie-ins. Haynes […]
Posthumous DFW? Not Likely
David Foster Wallace’s agent Bonnie Nadell tells the Observer: “People are asking us, ‘Is there anything unpublished? Is there anything sitting in a drawer?’ But David was very fortunate, in that everything he wrote got published and published well.” But there are two short pieces of fiction (which ran in The New Yorker and Harper’s) that Wallace once said were from “something longer that isn’t even close to halfway finished yet.” But Nadell says, “Have I read the larger thing? No. And I don’t think anyone’s gonna read it.”Observer
German Book Prize Nominees, and Australian Winners
The 25,000-euro prize for Germany’s best novel will be given October 13, right before the Frankfurt Book Fair. The contenders are: Dietmar Dath: Die Abschaffung der Arten (Suhrkamp, September 2008)Sherko Fatah: Das dunkle Schiff (Jung und Jung, February 2008)Iris Hanika: Treffen sich zwei (Droschl, January 2008)Rolf Lappert: Nach Hause schwimmen (Hanser, February 2008)Ingo Schulze: Adam und Evelyn (Berlin Verlag, August 2008)Uwe Tellkamp: Der Turm (Suhrkamp, September 2008) Schulze appears to be the only author who has been published previously in English (with works including Simple Stories and 33 Moments of Happiness: St. Petersburg Stories and New Lives, set for release […]
Book Spun from Movie Could Be Season's Christian Hit
Here’s a twist on the usual formula. “Fireproof” is a movie set for release at the end of the month about a firefighter asked by his father to take a 40-day marriage challenge before divorcing his wife of seven years. The challenge involves reading and following an invented book THE LOVE DARE, “which eventually transforms him and his view of love, marriage, and faith.” So test audiences for the movie asked how they could get the book–which didn’t exist. Brothers Alex Kendrick and Stephen Kendrick, pastors at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia and creators of Sherwood Pictures, who directed […]
Some Actual News from the Gelman Book
An LA Times blog takes an amusing approach to Barton Gellman’s book on Vice President Cheney, noting that the Washington Post has been “shamelessly flakking excerpts from the book on page one of its newspaper. But some portions are still embargoed.” They go on to reproduce an anecdote in the book in which Cheney has turned down President Bush on a request to go spearhead relief efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina: “I asked Dick if he’d be interested in spearheading this,” Bush announced. “Let’s just say I didn’t get the most positive response.” Bush nodded ironically toward the […]