Boy meets girl. Girl loses interest in boy. Girl hires girl to dump boy. That's Johanna Edwards's variation on the classic formula in her sophomore chick lit effort, Your Big Break, to be published by Berkley next spring. The novel has one of those down-the-middle romantic comedy concepts that producers (and audiences) love: the heroine, a young woman who works for a "break-up" agency, is hired by a female client to end things with the client's boyfriend. It turns out one woman's Mr. Wrong is another's Mr. Right, and the two fall hopelessly in love (against company policy and numerous obstacles). In the end, the heroine gets the guy—and a happier career, working for a matchmaking agency. One studio exec described it as "Hitch in reverse," which is probably why seven producers are reportedly pursuing it. The tepid Will Smith—Kevin James vehicle went on to gross $177 million. Michelle Kroes of Rabineau Wachter & Sanford represents Edwards for film.
A third shot at movie stardom? Looks like that's what's in store for Jack Reacher, the ex-military policeman and star of nine Lee Child novels. Paramount put the rugged loner in its crosshairs last week after the series fell out of option from New Line. (Prior to that, the film unit of Polygram [now Universal Music Group] held the rights.) Since his introduction in 1997's Killing Floor (Putnam), Reacher has taken on Montana extremists, kidnappers and the occasional plot contrivance and walked away every time. Now he'll face a reinvigorated Paramount, which under new chief Brad Grey has become a competitive book buyer. (Recent acquisitions include Michael Finkel's True Story and Robert Ludlum's The Chancellor Manuscript—which set the studio back a whopping $4 million.) Delacorte published One Shot, Child's latest Preacher novel, June 14. Child is represented by the U.K.'s Darley Anderson of Darley Anderson Literary Agency. APA's Steve Fisher did the film deal.
Has there ever been a better time to be a YA author in Hollywood? Just ask Ally Carter. Three weeks ago, Disney preempted the author's first YA novel, I'd Tell You I Love You but Then I'd Have to Kill You, based on two chapters and an outline (see Hollywood Reader, June 13). The studio wasted no time in handing the Hyperion book over to Debra Martin Chase, the teen queen producer who transformed Meg Cabot's novel The Princess Diaries (HarperCollins, 2000) into a $108 million Disney franchise, and whose well-received adaptation of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (based on a novel by Ann Brashares, Delacorte, 2001) is currently in the box office Top 10. As studios increasingly rely on DVD dollars to boost a film's profitability (DVD revenue for a hit movie frequently surpasses its domestic box office haul), Hollywood's appetite for projects inspired by YA novels only increases. Family fare—such as Diaries or Disney's upcoming Herbie: Fully Loaded—is the second biggest grosser in the DVD aftermarket. Only big-budget action movies, no matter how lousy, do better (which probably goes a long way in explaining Vin Diesel).
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