This week in Page to Screen--PW's weekly column tracking film rights circulating in Hollywood--a classic, and caustic, backlist autobiography and quirky vampire yarn go out to producers and studios.
Hoping to cash in on on the recent interest in Robert Graves, Nick Harris at RWSH is shopping film rights to Graves's autobiography, Goodbye to All That. And, although a searing anti-war memoir by an English poet originally published in 1929 may not sound like studio fodder, Harris is hoping recent Hollywood interest in Graves will spark Hollywood insiders to take another looks at this classic. (Film rights to Graves's novel about the fourth Roman Emperor, I, Claudius, sold to Relativity Media, for director Jim Sheridan, in September.) Harris, who called the book "darkly humorous"--it chronicles Graves's childhood and schooling through his stint in the trenches during World War I--noted that the text is still considered a classic of the post-War generation which might make some overlook its weighty-ness. As Harris put it: "I wouldn’t take it on holiday with me, but it’s a movie."
Also making the rounds, via Justin Manask at Office for Literary Adaptation, is Christopher Farnsworth's Blood Oath, about a vampire sworn to protect the president from supernatural baddies. Alexandra Machinist at Linda Chester & Associates is handling the lit rights to the book and said a "substantial" pre-empt offer has already come in from one house with an exclusive first look; she's now taking the book out wide. Manask said he's taking the property to "producers of big summer movies and the whole geek spectrum of comic book, science fiction and horror fans." Farnsworth, a debut novelist, has had a number of screenplays optioned.
If you have news to report about books making the rounds in Hollywood--or information on film rights that have sold--send details to rachel.deahl@reedbusiness.com.
