Hollywood Starts Courting Coben
By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 7/29/2008 9:55:00 AM
Harlen Coben’s thrillers have long been on the radar of producers and execs in Hollywood, but it took an unexpected hit—a French adaptation of his 1993 book Tell No One—to really grab the attention of Tinseltown. The movie, which bowed to strong reviews and big crowds in France when it opened there in 2006, has sparked more interest in Coben since it landed on U.S. shores. Tell No One opened here on July 2 and has been topping the indie box office since, proving an unexpected foreign language film hit.
Coben, who wound up optioning the book to Guillame Canet after the French actor-turned-director approached him directly about a movie, said that there’s always been a “fair amount of interest” in his work, but the success of Tell No One has “caused a lot of people to take a second look.” (Tell No One is the first film that has appeared based on Coben’s work, the majority of which is not under option.) A rep for Brian Lipson at Endeavor, who reps Coben for film, also confirmed that more calls are coming in about the author’s work.
The movie, which has drawn a strong critical reaction in the U.S. and also had a successful run in England, has made people take notice, said Coben’s agent, Lisa Vance of Aaron Priest. “When [the film] finally came here people were paying attention; now it’s grown exponentially.”
Talk of an American remake of Tell No One is also circulating—Vance said the French studio which made the film, and controls the remake rights, has gotten various studio offers. While Coben wouldn’t provide specifics, saying he likes to “keep a nice arm’s length” from the film deals, he did add that “a lot of stuff is happening.”
