EXCLUSIVE: In one of many wildest e-book rights auctions the city has seen in a while, Warner Bros manufacturing co-heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy tonight landed display rights to the upcoming T.J. Newman novel Drowning: The Rescue Of Flight 1421. Studio paid $1.5 million in opposition to $3 million, and there have been 5 seven-figure bids on the desk, sources mentioned.
It’s the second splashy thriller novel set on this planet of aviation written by Newman, who labored as a flight attendant as she wrote her debut novel Falling, which offered in three 7-figure offers: a worldwide publishing cope with Avid Reader/Simon & Schuster; overseas rights in additional than 30 nations; and a $1.5 million film cope with Common and Working Title. The debut novel turned the quickest promoting fiction debut for Simon & Schuster since 2004.
In her second novel Drowning, a airplane crashes within the Pacific Ocean six minutes after takeoff and is flooded after an explosion throughout evacuation. A dozen survivors sink in a sealed a part of the plane because it perches precariously on an undersea cliff 200 ft under the floor. Amongst them is an engineer and his 11-year-old daughter. His estranged spouse — she’s additionally the lady’s mom — is a part of the elite rescue group that races to save lots of the passengers earlier than their air runs out.
As Deadline divulged final Tuesday, the e-book leaked in Hollywood, and the page-turner caught on shortly with potential consumers. Amongst these circling as issues heated up had been Steven Spielberg, Alfonso Cuaron, Damien Chazelle, Nicole Kidman, The Russo Brothers, M. Evening Shyamalan and producers together with Jerry Bruckheimer, Peter Chernin, and 21 Laps. The bidding got here down to 5 gives: Apple with Jerry Bruckheimer; Paramount with Damien Chazelle; Warner Brothers; Legendary, and Common Tv.
The movie might be produced by Shane Salerno and The Story Manufacturing facility. Salerno took on Newman when she was a flight attendant who stuffed the down time on flights scribbling an aviation thriller, solely to see her get rejected by 41 brokers. Newman might be govt producer on Drowning, which might be revealed Might 30 by Simon & Schuster.
It’s a spirited win for Warner Bros, whose DeLuca and Abdy wish to make huge movies that may succeed on a worldwide theatrical stage. Drowning has sturdy roles for the rescuer/mother, and the engineer/father struggling to maintain their daughter alive. It’s the type of movie the late director Wolfgang Petersen made his stomping grounds in his heyday.
The Story Manufacturing facility and CAA brokered the sale. By the best way, the writer stopped being a flight attendant, so she will write books full time. She can be adapting her debut novel Falling, her first script.