Scholastic has entered a three-year first-look deal to develop live-action feature films with Universal Pictures — which was already developing adaptations of Clifford, The Big Red Dog and The 39 Clues. Deborah Forte is leaving her role as president of Scholastic Media to develop and produce these properties through her new production company Silvertongue Films, which will operate out of offices in Los Angeles and New York. In a statement, Forte said she was “excited about the new venture” which would allow her to “focus on producing movies based on a selection of Scholastic’s treasured book series alongside some of the most talented […]
Film/TV
Warner Bros. Will Make 3 Movies From Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Warner Bros. announced future “strategic content plans” at an investor conference on Wednesday that included confirmation they will make three movies out of JK Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. When the “expanded creative partnership” with Rowling was announced a little over a year ago, they simply said that the movie for which Rowling was writing the screenplay was “planned as the first picture in a new film series.” Now Warner indicates the first movie will be released in 2016, with the subsequent two following in 2018 and 2020. The studio will release three more LEGO-branded movies over the next […]
Universal Has Two-Year First Look Deal With Penguin Random House
In the latest expansion of Penguin Random House’s film/tv development efforts, Random House Studio has signed a two-year first-look production agreement Universal Pictures. Random House Studio, under the direction of president Peter Gethers, will serve as a producer on the projects developed and filmed under the agreement. Once again, UTA represented Penguin Random House in the deal. Universal co-president of production Jeffrey Kirschenbaum says in the announcement: “Peter Gethers’ ability to identify books that can be adapted into movies that can attract major talent makes his team a unique and invaluable addition to the Universal family.” Universal is already readying […]
Novelists’ Production Company Gets Backing
Authors Brian McGreevy, Lee Shipman and Philipp Meyer production company El Jefe formed earlier this year — has landed a first-look development deal with Slingshot Media, which is backed by private equity firm TPG. The three are friends from the Michener Center at the University of Texas at Austin and their company “aims to develop TV projects with the goal of helping novelists make the transition to writing for TV.” They have optioned Meyer’s American Rust, and Wil S. Hylton’s Vanished. McGreevy’s book Hemlock Grove was already adapted for Netflix by McGreevy and Shipman, and the trio is also adapting […]
Sony Hires Doherty As Literary Development Executive
Sony Pictures has hired Ballantine Bantam Dell senior editor Ryan Doherty for the newly-created position of vp, literary development, based in Sony’s New York headquarters. Doherty will pursue “book-to-film-and-television opportunities for all content divisions across Sony Entertainment” and the hire is designed to “deepen and expand the studio’s efforts in these areas.” President of Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group Doug Belgrad says in the announcement, “By bringing Ryan in to this new executive position in New York, we are strengthening our commitment to finding the highest quality and most commercial source material for each of our divisions. Ryan is a […]
Briefs: September Costco Pick; Amis Breaks with German, French Publishers; Maze Runner Movie
The September Pennie’s Pick at Costco is The Monogram Murders: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery, by Sophie Hannah. The Guardian reported that two of Martin Amis‘s longstanding international publishers — Hanser in Germany, and Gallimard in France — declined to publish his newest novel, The Zone of Interest, set in a fictionalized Auschwitz. Another German publisher has not been secured yet, but Calmann-Levy will publish the book in France in 2015. Editor Deborah Kaufmann says she is “delighted to be starting a long relationship with Martin Amis.” The Guardian notes, “He said that it was his understanding that Gallimard’s rejection was due to […]