Jackson Goes Studio Shopping for Lovely Bones Director Peter Jackson has gone out to potential studio partners with his co-written screenplay for an adaptation of Alice Sebold’s THE LOVELY BONES. He acquired rights from Film Four in 2004, and has said that the film would be his next project. Variety Amazon Has Hosseini Exclusives Amazon is offering an exclusive two-page excerpt from Khaled Hosseini’s forthcoming A THOUSAND SUNS (publishing on May 22), along with a podcast interview with the author. Of more interest, the site has also posted 15 short pre-publication reviews after querying their top 100 reviewers in early […]

More Tenet There were Tenet stories (and responses) all over this weekend, as this week’s Time carries a serial. Tenet says that Vice President Cheney and his circle of supporters “wanted to be able to limit the Iraqis’ power and handpick those Iraqis who would participate” in the government after the initial phase of the war. “They never understood that, fundamentally, political control depends on the consent of the governed.” Time serial Time interview Among the many articles, Michiko Kakutani launched a pre-publication review on Saturday: “Alternately withholding and aggrieved, earnest and disingenuous, At the Center of the Storm is […]

Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Lisa VanAuken writing as Lisa Dale’s THE LUCKY MOON, exploring the mysterious connectivity […]

Tenet Coverage Begins As often happens, a NYT reporter walks into a store, and comes out with the embargoed George Tenet book (bought without a discount, “at retail price”). Calling it “by turns accusatory, defensive, and modestly self-critical,” the Times quotes Tenet as writing: “There was never a serious debate that I know of within the administration about the imminence of the Iraqi threat.” Though there was that 2002 National Intelligence Estimate about Iraq’s weapons programs, which Tenet calls “one of the lowest moments of my seven-year tenure,” explaining that “in retrospect, we got it wrong partly because the truth […]

Please Note Lunch is being served early because it’s my 15th anniversary and we’re playing hooky for the rest of the day. Another Hollywood Agency Moves In on the Book Business The Gersh Agency is the latest film-world player to add a book division. It will be run out of Gersh’s NY office by Phyllis Wender, who ran Rosenstone/Wender (partner Howard Rosenstone died last year) and will bring agents Sonia Pabley and Susan Cohen with her. Co-president Bob Gersh tells Variety, “Most book agents know Phyllis, and her reputation and stature will dictate how the division will do business. We’ve […]

Amazon Fools Them Again Wall Street was prepared for a lackluster Q1 earnings report from Amazon, and instead the e-tailer announced better than expected results, with sales of $3.02 billion, up 32 percent, and improved earnings of $145 million, up 38 percent from a year ago. International “media” sales of $1 billion (up 31 percent) have now finally surpassed US media sales of $990 million (up 21 percent), the culmination of a growing trend. Profits improved through a reduction in technology spending and a tax change. The company increased their guidance for the rest of the fiscal, now expecting sales […]