Big Movie Deal for Bantam Novel

by John F. Baker

November 4, 2002

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 Hornby like effect. Lipskar put the movie deal together with Kassie Evashevski at Brillstein-Grey in L.A., and Maja Nikolic is handling foreign rights.