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Par taking 'Hailey' tale Michaels Goldwyn shingle to produce Tropper's 'After' by Chris Gardner Paramount Pictures has acquired Jonathan Tropper's upcoming novel "After Hailey" for north of $1 million and will set it up with John Goldwyn and Lorne Michaels to produce through their studio-based Michaels Goldwyn shingle. Gotham-based Sara Colleton will also produce. Deal came after an intense bidding war that also included Warner Bros. and Fox 2000. Warner Bros. wanted to purchase the novel for Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way and Paula Weinstein's Spring Creek Prods., while Fox 2000 had Mark Waters and Jessica Tuchinsky in mind. New Line Cinema also put in a bid on Tuesday in an effort to purchase the tome for Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson's Contrafilm. In the end, however, it was Goldwyn and Michaels who won out thanks to Par's rich paycheck. "After Hailey," due out in 2007 from Bantam Books, is about a young twentysomething man who falls in love with an older woman. The two marry and move to the suburbs where the woman dies, leaving him to raise her teenage son. Book is Tropper's third novel and his third straight work optioned by Hollywood for the big-screen. His previous book "Everything Changes" is set up at Sony with Tobey Maguire and Wendy Finerman producing and his "Book of Joe" is at Plan B through Warner Bros. Brillstein-Grey's Kassie Evashevski and Jon Liebman brokered the deal in association with Tropper's NYC-based reps, the Writers House. At Par, production prexy Alli Shearmur will oversee. The
Hollywood Reporter
Maguire will produce through his Maguire Entertainment banner with the shingle's Mark Ross overseeing for the company. The studio executives on the project are Amy Baer and the recently promoted Adam Milano. Tropper's novel revolves around the twentysomething Zach, who is on the verge of marrying the perfect girl when he undergoes a life crisis as he faces feelings for his recently deceased best friend's wife and also deals with the sudden arrival of his flamboyant, womanizing, estranged father. Another of Tropper's books, "The Book of Joe," hit stores earlier this year and was optioned by Warner Bros. Pictures for Plan B to produce. Miguel Arteta has signed on to direct and executive produce, with Doug Wright penning the script. Best known for the Academy Award-winning "Forrest Gump," Finerman's credits include "Stepmom," directed by Chris Columbus, and "Drumline." Maguire was exec producer on last year's "Seabiscuit" and producer of 2002's "25th Hour," directed by Spike Lee. Last year, Warners optioned Len Williams' novel "Justice Deferred" for Maguire Entertainment to produce. Also at Warners, Maguire Entertainment is producing "Urban Townie" together with Paula Weinstein. It is also developing another book adaptation, "Electroboy," which the company is producing with Endgame Entertainment and Raw Entertainment. Tropper is repped by Simon Lipskar of Writers House and Kassie Evashevski at Brillstein-Grey. Maguire is repped by CAA and Management 360 Daily
Variety, Oct. 30, 2002. Warner Bros. has optioned the upcoming Jonathan Tropper novel "Bush Falls" (now entitled THE BOOK OF JOE) for the producing troika of Brad Pitt, his manager Brad Grey and wife Jennifer Aniston. The book is about a man who grows up as an outcast in Bush Falls, Conn. He moves to Manhattan and writes a novel featuring the town and its inhabitants. After the novel is turned into a hit film, the writer returns to Bush Falls and must face the wrath of the townsfolk. The book is the second significant buy made by the trio since they formed a still unnamed film shingle and set it at WB in summer. They also bought the rights to Mark Haddon's novel "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," which Steve Kloves is in talks to adapt and direct. They'll produce that film with David Heyman, producer of the three "Harry Potter" films that Kloves scripted. Publishers
Weekly A novel bought by Bantam editor Abby Zidle only a month ago the future for publication auctioned for movie rights and bought by Warner Bros. for the new production company formed by Brad Pitt, Brad Grey and Jennifer Aniston. It's Bush Falls (now entitled THE BOOK OF JOE) by Jonathan Tropper, bought from agent Simon Lipskar at Writers House as part of a two-book deal. The book tells of the comedy and heartache that ensue when a man who has written bitterly about his hometown in a successful book and movie tries to go back and pick up the strands of his youth again. Sounds a bit like Thomas Wolfe's You Can't Go Home Again, but Bantam is talking of a Nick Hornbylike effect. Lipskar put the movie deal together with Kassie Evashevski at Brillstein-Grey in L.A., and Maja Nikolic is handling foreign rights. |
  
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Tobey
Maguire is exercising his producer's prowess for Columbia Pictures. The
"Spider-Man 2" star is teaming up with Wendy Finerman to produce
a big-screen adaptation of the novel "Everything Changes"
by Jonathan Tropper, to be published by Bantam's Delacorte Press.