Hollywood Reader

In Andy Behrens's YA debut All the Way, due out from Dutton this May, high school senior Ian Lafferty convinces two pals to accompany him on a cross-country road trip so he can meet online pen pal Danielle. But unlike Nicollette Sheridan, John Cusack's assured catch in the 1985 teen comedy The Sure Thing, Danielle may or may not be hot, and she may or may not have sex with Ian. The premise was enough for Paramount, however, which optioned the title for producer Lynda Obst (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days). Leslie Morgenstein and Bob Levy of the entertainment think tank Alloy Entertainment (which helped develop the title) will also produce.

In a world filled with cat gangsters, vicious dogs and evil, mysterious beings called the Vanishings lives Varjak Paw, a martial arts–trained Mesopotamian Blue feline and the hero of SF Said's children's novel of the same name (Random/David Fickling, 2003). Mystical landscapes and talking animals? No wonder the Jim Henson Company was interested; the workshop behind the Muppets has just optioned the rights to Said's book, the first of a planned trilogy. As part of the deal, Said will co-write the script with the book's illustrator, David McKean (MirrorMask), who will also direct. Said is repped by Celia Catchpole for lit, and Valerie Hoskins, of Valerie Hoskins Associates Ltd., for TV and film.

Given his stunning architectural career and scandalous personal life, it's a wonder Frank Lloyd Wright's life story hasn't been turned into a biopic yet. Though he was the brilliant mind behind both Manhattan's Guggenheim Museum and Tokyo's Imperial Hotel, the Wisconsin native was also a reckless tyrant who loved and left three wives and multiple mistresses. Of Wright's lovers, however, none was more infamous than Mamah Borthwick Cheney, for whom he left his first wife and six kids. Cheney, who was killed in a blaze set by a deranged manservant, is the subject of Nancy Drew Horan's (tentatively titled) Loving Frank, coming in early summer from Ballantine and currently making the rounds in Hollywood. Horan is repped by ICM's Lisa Bankoff for lit and Ron Bernstein for film, both of ICM.

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