Coming Home
Last month, Paramount's New York office celebrated the return of former studio book scout Aimee Shieh after a five-year hiatus as a stay-at-home mother/indie producer. Last week marked a second homecoming of sorts for the studio, when producer Nick Wechsler placed ex—New York staffer Justin Evans's psychological thriller A Good and Happy Child (Shaye Areheart, May) with the studio's boutique label Paramount Vantage. Wechsler optioned Evans's novel last year with his own money (see Hollywood Reader, Dec. 18, 2006), a move that may turn out to be strikingly prescient. In a starred review (Mar. 12), PW called Child “the debut of a serious talent” and predicted “the intelligence and humanity of this thriller should help launch it onto bestseller lists.” Diana Bartoli and RWSH's Sylvie Rabineau rep Evans.
Disappearing Acts
When it comes to movies, “based on a true story” has always been a somewhat iffy assertion. No matter how far from actual events the film version strays, it's the Hollywood version that sticks with people. Perhaps that's what attracted Secretary and Fur director Steven Shainberg to Elizabeth Crane's story “Something Shiny” (from When the Messenger Is Hot, Little, Brown, 2003), In the story, Wendy, a recovered alcoholic, sells her memoir to Hollywood and is visited by the actress who will play her. The starlet slowly assumes Wendy's identity, until Wendy gradually disappears and becomes completely transparent. Unlike Secretary, Shainberg won't adapt this one himself: Crane's agent Alice Tasman of the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency said Shainberg has a short list of top writers in mind. Crane's third collection, You Must Be This Happy to Enter, will be published by Akashic/Punk Planet this fall.
Shorts
The winners of the rights to two recent hotly contested books closed the deal in part by promising to make charitable contributions. Sony offered to donate money to the school profiled in Deborah Rodriguez and Kristin Ohlson's Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil (Doubleday, Apr.), while Variety and the Wall Street Journal reported that earlier this year Universal and the New York Times set up a fund for the refugee soccer players profiled in the front-page Times story and forthcoming book by Warren St. John (Spiegel & Grau). Call it “I gave at the studio.”
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