Rob Carlson at William Morris has recently started shopping film rights to Dean Lorey's Monster Pound. The project is in the early stages of development and Carlson said he's taking out sample chapters and an outline to both lit agents and producers. Carlson's pitch for the book is "a boy and his monster." Lorey's last book, Nightmare Academy, a middle-grade title about creatures who invade a sleepover, was published by HarperCollins and film rights sold to Universal with producers Steve Sommers and Bob Ducsay currently attached as producers.
Irene Webb is also shopping an interesting project, a story being adapted into a book and possible movie after starting as a documentary. Webb, who described the deal as "film to book to film," has already sold (with Wendi Niad Management) lit rights to HarperStudio for a book based on the experiences of Elaine Hall, the mother of an autistic son who started a theater program for special needs kids called The Miracle Project. (Hall was the subject of the Emmy-winning documentary which aired on HBO, Autism, The Musical.) Hall is also developing a treatment for a narrative feature based on her story with producers Elaine and Diane Isaacs (who produced And Starring Pancho Villa), and Webb is going to start shopping that project in Hollywood soon.
