Harper To Follow Random Into Film Business

By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 10/1/2007 2:53:00 PM

HarperCollins, apparently, isn’t content to be without its own side film project. Following in the footsteps of Random House, which partnered with Focus Features to form Random House Films, HarperCollins has teamed with New York indie film house Sharp Independent to make film adaptations of HarperCollins books. Sharp Independent at HarperCollins, as the partnership has been dubbed, will, like RH Films, provide a more direct Hollywood route for HarperCollins books. A rep from the publisher was not available at press time to discuss details of how the new business will be structured.

The new venture will be overseen by Harper/Morrow president and group publisher Michael Morrison and run out of Harper’s Manhattan office. Sharp Independent, led by longtime producer Jeff Sharp, has a track record of handling book to film projects—examples include 2003’s A Home at the End of the World (adapted from Michael Cunningham’s novel) and 2007’s Evening (adapted from Susan Minot’s novel)—and this is something Morrison said is “sure to give our authors additional exposure in an increasingly competitive industry.”

The first feature from Random House Films, Reservation Road (based on the John Burnham Schwartz novel), recently showed at the Toronto Film Festival and is set to open nationally this month.