Page to Screen: The Hot Frankfurt Book and a Former Self-Published Author 

By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 10/30/2008 7:52:00 AM

What was arguably one of the hot books at Frankfurt, Juliet, is, we hear, being shopped for film rights by Rich Green at CAA. (A rep at the West Coast agency declined to comment on the matter.) Given the book's buzz in Frankfurt, and Ballantine's hefty seven figure preempt before the fair, now is certainly a logical time to shop this historical romance that riffs on the Bard's Romeo & Juliet; we assume the name Shakespeare in Love might be tossed around once or twice in pitch meetings. We also hear there's at least one offer already on the table.

On the sales front, Bill Contardi has sold film rights to Kimberla Lawson Roby's One in a Million to Lifetime. Contardi made the deal on behalf of agent Elaine Koster for the 2008 Morrow novel about a woman whose seemingly perfect life is suddenly upended. This is the first Hollywood deal for Roby, whose first novel, Behind Closed Doors, was originally self-published in 1997 before it was picked up by Black Classics Press. Roby is best known for her series featuring the philandering minister Curtis Black.