Hyperion Wins Auction for Captain Phillips Book

By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 6/8/2009 1:48:00 PM

After we reported last month that CAA took on Captain Richard Phillips as a client, shopping his life rights to both the publishing and film industries, stories surfaced on Friday citing rumors that Phillips' memoir sold at auction to Hyperion. PW has confirmed that the publisher did win the auction for an as-yet-untitled book from the former head of the Maersk Alabama.

A rep from Hyperion would not comment on the reported $500,000 advance the house paid for Phillips's high seas account of saving his crew from Somali pirates in April, but the rep did say the book was acquired by Hyperion editor-in-chief Will Balliett and is scheduled to be published in early 2010.

The Hyperion acquisition comes shortly after Columbia Pictures optioned Phillips's story with Scott Rudin and Kevin Spacey, among others, attached as producers. Although no news has surfaced about how much Columbia paid for this dramatic true life tale on the high seas, the initial reports about the book deal pointed to the fact that $500,000 is likely less than CAA was hoping for...and expecting. The other recent man-in-uniform-cum-media-darling, Sully Sullenburger, landed a reported $2 to $3 million from HarperCollins for his memoir and a poetry collection.