Lehane's Hot Streak
With two Oscar nods for Mystic River, several projects in active development and Gone, Baby, Gone scheduled to be released later this year from Miramax, Dennis Lehane's position as one of Hollywood's favorite authors is pretty secure. Still, the bestselling author rang out 2006 with a welcome affirmation of his place in L.A.'s literary food chain. Days after his bestseller Shutter Island (Morrow, 2003) fell out of option from Columbia, the Gersh Agency's Amy Schiffman found herself juggling several highly interested parties (including several France-based producers, which Lehane's long-term lit agent Ann Rittenberg says is one of Lehane's most popular markets along with—go figure—Sweden). Schiffman kept Shutter on U.S. shores, with Michael Medavoy's Phoenix Pictures trumping Lehane's overseas suitors.
A Fantasy December
Nothing sweetens an agent's New Year's more than closing a few nice deals before the holidays. By that measure, Jody Hotchkiss had a very festive December 31. Besides his end-of-year sale of David Wise's Vanity Fairspy hunter article to Paramount, Hotchkiss optioned Russell S. Bonds's Stealing the General (Westholme, Oct.) to Kevin Misher out of the producer's discretionary fund (See Hollywood Reader, Dec. 4, 2006). Though no studio is on board yet, Misher's discretionary book buys seem to be dipped in the Hollywood equivalent of holy water: Misher optioned Bryan Burrough's Public Enemies (Penguin, 2004), attached A-listers Leonardo Di Caprioand Michael Mann and promptly set it up at Universal. He later optioned Eric Jager's The Last Duel(Broadway, 2004) before putting Martin Scorseseat the helm. Duel is now at Paramount.
Spy Games
Speaking of David Wise, the December 18 HR reported that the veteran journalist/author was considering making the Alexander Litvinenko story his next book. Wise has apparently dropped the idea, but producers interested in the case won't have to wait long for material. Random House's Will Murphy has signed up Wall Street Journal journalist Steven LeVineto write a book about Litvinenko's murder. LeVine's itinerary for the book's research reads like a travelogue out of The Bourne Identity—he'll trek to the U.K., Germany, France and Russia asking questions someone, somewhere doesn't want answered. Tom Wallace represents LeVine. Jody Hotchkiss will handle film rights.
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