Can't-Miss Titles Still Up for Grabs + a Special Offer for New Subscribers
Pick from a true-crime thriller, a business procedural, a small-town mystery and more
I wanted to take this Cyber Monday to flag a few recent favorites I've featured and reintroduce The Optionist to those of you who only get the limited paywalled version. We’ve got a special offer for new subscribers for this week.
Even with both strikes over and business beginning to return to normal, the IP market still feels unsettled by the larger changes shaking the industry. There have been moments of exuberance where the IP market seems strong, and others where it feels like everyone is frozen by indecision. It can be hard to discern how these changes will shape what and how much makes it to the air.
Still the best hedge in these uncertain times, as always, is good material. Not just having good material, but keeping a running list in your head of possibilities (and comps) across genres for when opportunities arise.
That's where The Optionist comes in. I like to think of it as being able to bulk up your development team for a modest investment. Our curated list of picks across genres and formats cuts through the morass to offer you each week what I think are the most promising choices for further development.
It’s more than just a simple logline. The Optionist gives a concise but robust explanation of what about this material that's promising — world building, characters, the emotional arc or whatever stands out. It also includes added information, such as comps, similar projects in development and sometimes casting suggestions. And I tell you who reps the material so you know who to go to straight away. The aim is to give you enough information to make an informed decision, but not overwhelm you with extraneous detail.
I also think of The Optionist as an inspiration machine. Even when the material might not be exactly right for you, I really believe the write-ups can help fuel your brainstorming. Sometimes all you need to get the juices flowing is to read a couple of other good ideas.
And The Optionist is a hotbed of good ideas. Whether it is something that was the subject of a buzzy 10-way bidding war or material that exits the market quietly, so many titles featured in The Optionist have been picked up that's it is hard to track them all. That big bidding war I mentioned involved Godfall, this awesome serial-killer-meets-high-concept-science-fiction story from the University of Nebraska Press. A friend tipped it to me and we featured it early. And the buzz grew from there. One of the quieter ones I'm thinking of is All the Sinners Bleed, a Southern noir story by S. A. Crosby that was one of my favorite crime novels of the last year.
But as today's recap underscores, the reservoir of good material runs deep. I picked a handful from the fall that I liked and where the rights are still available to give you a sense of all The Optionist has to offer.
A few of these titles have published since they appeared in The Optionist and the reviews only add to my confidence. Take In Light of All Darkness, about the Polly Klaas case, which one reviewer called "as enthralling as... Capote's In Cold Blood,” while another simply declared it "one of the best true crime books out there." Or The Longest Minute, about the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906, which the New York Times said, "reads, at times, like the script of a Robert Altman movie" with "a cast of hundreds — policemen and children; day laborers and society doyennes; the novelist Jack London; the tenor Enrico Caruso."
I also loved Distant Sons, a moody and moving Wisconsin-set crime story, which The Washington Post praised as "eloquent" and packed with a "rich ensemble of characters." Another favorite in here is an account of being a junior consultant at McKinsey, which I think could be the basis for a great series. Let me wrap this up before I sound like Chris Farley interviewing Paul McCartney.
I'm biased, but I think The Optionist is an incredible resource. I'm confident that everyone who subscribes can find a project over the course of a year.
But subscribe and see for yourself. We're offering a special 50 percent off discount right now for new subscribers for the next 48 hours to make the decision that much easier for you.
Thanks for reading along!
Andy
True Crime/Procedural/Thriller
For fans of The Fugitive and Gone Baby Gone
Potential logline: The real story of Polly Klaas' 1993 kidnapping, the thrilling tick-tock hunt to find her and how the case changed the way child abductions are investigated.
In Light of All Darkness: Inside the Polly Klaas Kidnapping and the Search for America's Child by Kim Cross (Grand Central, Oct.) I skipped over this book at first, assuming someone had brought the Polly Klaas story to the screen already. But when I did some research, I was surprised to find I was wrong. There have been true-crime docs, but not a dramatization. It’s amazing to think that no one has tackled what was not only one of the highest-profile true-crime stories of the ’90s, but one that is also so thrilling. If you’re not familiar with the case, 12-year-old Klaas was kidnapped in October 1993 out of her bedroom in Petaluma, Calif. during a sleepover with a couple of friends while her parents were asleep in the room next door. It led to a 65-day search that was as big a media story as things got in pre-internet pre-viral days — fellow Petaluma native Winona Ryder, then at the height of her stardom, was hugely involved. There were loads of twists and turns and the investigation led to lots of new investigative techniques. The kidnapper was almost caught that first night when he was questioned by law enforcement when his car got stuck in a ditch, but not all police in the surrounding area shared the same communications channels so they missed the alert. Cross is actually the daughter-in-law of one of the FBI’s lead investigators in the case, so she brings a huge amount of insider access to the story and does an excellent job developing the investigators’ backstories and contributions to the case. Ultimately that initial encounter did help crack the case, the killer was arrested, convicted and has been on death row ever since. The first half brings a lot of The Fugitive energy to the story; the second half doesn’t have quite the same propulsive pacing, but is still engrossing. Given the high name recognition around this case, its impact on investigative techniques and the impending 30th anniversary, someone should hop on this right away. A short limited series — maybe four or six episodes — seems like a no-brainer to me. REPS: Elizabeth Wachtel/WME
Comedy
For fans of Barbie
Potential logline: Four classic fairy-tale princes team up to save their kingdoms and show the world there’s more to them than just their handsome faces.
The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy (Walden Pond Press, 2012) I found this revisionist spin on the Prince Charming fairy tales delightful and one of the summer's big hits caused me to look at it with fresh eyes. The story finds the heroes from several classic fairy tales — Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty — frustrated that the stories have portrayed them as bland cardboard cutouts and struggling with a happily ever after that isn't always so. Cinderella wants to party more than her Prince Charming wants to; Gustav, the Prince Charming from Rapunzel, feels emasculated at having to be rescued by a girl; Snow White wants more me time away from her Prince Charming; and Sleeping Beauty and her Prince Charming find out, well, they just don't have anything in common. When Zaubera, the witch from Rapunzel who herself is pissed that she didn't get a bigger part in that story or even a name, plots her revenge, the four Princes Charming (they like that plural) band together to defeat her, save their kingdoms and maybe get a little more of the recognition they think they deserve along the way. The stories play off of and poke fun at the conventions and tropes of fairy tales that we all know. Part of the joy here is the winking at those expectations. The NYT describes it as the Three Musketeers meet the Marx Brothers, which is spot on. Hero's Guide was in development for a decade at Fox Animation before Fox Animation died. Animation is the obvious way to go — think Shrek or How to Train Your Dragon as comps — but in a post-Barbie world I started to imagine a live action and CGI version that would draw in an adult audience as well as kids with a smart take on the material. Imagine the Kens (from Barbie) do fairy tales. There's some hilarious casting you could do here among some of the funny hunks. Think Ryan Reynolds, Chris Hemsworth, Ryan Gosling, Chris Pine, etc., playing the Princes (or there’s a younger-skewing cast with, say, Tom Holland and Will Poulter). Plus, it’d be fun casting the heroines as well. Healy's written two sequels as well, so this could be a franchise. REPS: Sean Daily/Hotchkiss & Associates
Mystery/Thriller
For fans of Mare of Easttown
Potential logline: When his pickup breaks down in rural Wisconsin, Sean Courtland takes a quickie job doing home building to pay for the repairs and finds himself caught up in a decades-old mystery involving the disappearance of three local boys.
Distant Sons by Tim Johnston (Algonquin Books, Oct.)This gripping small-town mystery, populated with strong world building and compelling characters, gives off a Mare of Easttown vibe while focusing more on the men. (Macho of Easttown, perhaps?) On the way to visit his father, Sean Courtland's old truck breaks down in rural Wisconsin. Before he knows it, a ride into town and a fight defending a waitress at the local bar turns into a temporary job offer doing building work to pay for the repairs. Along the way, he strikes up a friendship with some locals, including Denise, the waitress; her dad Marion, who has the job offer; and Dan, another outsider who's hired alongside Sean because of his plumbing skills. The town is haunted by the never-solved disappearance of three local boys in the ’70s — a case that local detective Corrine Viegas is still determined to solve. Marion has long been the subject of local speculation that he could've been connected to the disappearance or perhaps covering up for an eccentric PTSD-suffering uncle who was also suspected of being involved. Sean's appearance sets in motion events that will eventually bring about a resolution to that old case. But like Mare — I wasn't just being trite with the comparison — the central mystery is in many ways less important than the exploration of the flawed people and broken lives in this hardscrabble small town. Johnston creates the kind of rich and fully realized characters that actors love to play. This would make for an engrossing prestigey limited series. Johnston is a late-in-life publishing success — he worked as carpenter for 25 years — but since the publication of Descent in 2015 he's been something of a sensation. Both Descent and 2019's The Current were well-reviewed bestsellers, with The Current also in development for TV. (Sean Courtland is also a character in Descent, but the rights have been carved out so that the books can be developed independently.) REPS: Joe Veltre/Gersh
Drama
For fans of Industry
Potential logline: A young college graduate gets a job at the most prestigious consulting firm in the U.S. and finds his morals and ethics challenged by the assignments he’s given working with a prison and border patrol.
“Confessions of a McKinsey Whistleblower: Inside the soul-crushing, morally bankrupt, top-secret world of our most powerful consulting firm” by Garrison Lovely (The Nation, Sept. 5) I've been mystified that there haven't been more TV series set in management consulting firms. There's really only been the comedy/drama House of Lies, which aired on Showtime from 2012-16. TV has been rich in legal procedurals and of late financial procedurals and dramas (Billions, Industry, Succession). Management consulting offers, to me at least, the structure of a legal procedural with the high-stakes financial thrills of something like Industry. Indeed, Industry, the HBO show about young British investment bankers, is the comp that comes to mind first because it’s essentially a coming-of-age story focused on the novice bankers. The Nation isn't the place one would normally find good IP, but Lovely's piece would serve as the perfect underlying rights to a consultant-set series (though for legal reasons I'd imagine you'd have to fictionalize McKinsey). I actually urged Lovely to consider turning the piece into a book. He's a naive optimist and political progressive who really believed McKinsey's BS about doing good and changing the world until his first two assignments sent him to Rikers Island and to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At Rikers, a senior partner accused them of "going native" because the young consultants adopted the guard's perspective that cracking a few heads is the most efficient way to police the jail. While at ICE, another senior partner, an immigrant, seriously suggested to Lovely that he sabotage the project from within because they were helping ICE do bad things. But the payoff for surviving the grueling first two years in the company is either a sterling recommendation to join another company, or entry to McKinsey's partner track and the riches and power that comes with that. I love the procedural element but in a fresh setting. I love the corruption of innocence/coming-of-age themes (in my imagined version, there are two young consultants who enter together and we're left guessing which one will be corrupted and which will exit). I love the two-year boot camp timetable, because it gives a nice narrative arc to the first couple of seasons of the show. REPS: Bhaskar Sunkara/The Nation
History/Drama
For fans of high-concept disaster movies
Potential logline: The incredibly true story of the greatest natural disaster in American history: the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.
The Longest Minute: The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 by Matthew J. Davenport (St. Martin's Press, Oct.) I found this new history of the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake riveting and thought it would make an incredible disaster thriller — I'm thinking limited series but there's easily a movie version in here as well. First, Davenport's retelling of the earthquake is visceral. It puts you there — streets buckling, buildings collapsing, the ground itself rippling and heaving. The scene at the Valencia Hotel is horrifying and gripping; some drowned from a broken water main while others were consumed by fire. Second, the drama of the aftermath is riveting as firefighters and residents raced to save people and the city even as all the hydrants ran dry. You could easily layer a fictional story on top of the real-life disaster like Jack and Rose in Titanic, but there are also some real-life characters worth developing, notably Fire Chief Dennis Sullivan, whose warnings about the frailties of the city's infrastructure in the event of a quake went unheeded. Plus, cameos from historical figures like the opera singer Enrico Caruso, who had finished performing just hours before the quake, and writer Jack London, whose firsthand account of the devastation was read coast to coast. Obviously, carving a story out of this will take some effort, but this is valuable underlying IP for its wealth of details, richly fleshed-out tick-tock of what happened and up-to-date understanding of the science behind the quake and its tragic aftermath. I’m surprised there hasn’t been a contemporary high-profile project centered on the disaster. James Dalessandro’s best-selling novel from the 1990s, 1906, has been in development for years with director Brad Bird, as one of his passion projects. Bird has described being caught between film — the earthquake should be on a big screen — and TV — the sprawling story deserves at least limited series length to really play out — in developing the project. But this deeply researched and lively account would be the perfect place to start for someone looking to develop their own project. REPS: Sam Fleishman /Literary Artists
Thriller/Speculative Fiction
For fans of Ready Player One and Black Mirror
Potential logline: In the near future where VR allows people to relive famous crimes as entertainment, a woman must plunge into this digital world to exonerate her husband of a horrific crime.
Past Crimes by Jason Pinter (Severn House, Feb.) Set in the near future, this speculative thriller imagines what would happen if virtual reality and our true crime obsessions merged. What if you could immerse yourself virtually in some of history's most gruesome crimes — say Jeffrey Dahmer's cabin or Lizzie Borden's house — witness what happened and also search for clues? (This just makes me think of the great Simpsons VR gag with Lisa and Genghis Khan.) Cassie West works for Past Crimes, "the Disneyland of Death," an icky job that involves persuading grieving families to sell the rights to their tragedies for entertainment. She and her husband have finally gotten pregnant when he gets caught in a bizarre crime involving a notorious cult and Cassie must plunge into the virtual crime-as-entertainment world to prove his innocence. And once there, she discovers a far bigger conspiracy than she ever imagined. Think Ready Player One by way of Black Mirror. (The RPO comp works but I think this story is better b/c it doesn't rely on the gimmicks — like the Back to the Future DeLorean, etc. — that powered RPO and worked on the page but on the screen became a distracting all-consuming Easter egg hunt.) And yes, this is the same Pinter we featured last week for “Blanks,” his short story. I think it's the first time we featured an author in back-to-back weeks. It's a total coincidence that I myself didn't realize until I was halfway through the book. But it just underscores that Pinter might be the kind of writer you want to be in business with for his ability to generate and execute cool high-concept scary/creepy sci-fi thrillers. REPS: Lucy Stille
Coming-of-Age/Diverse/Dramedy
For fans of Jane the Virgin and One Day at a Time (reboot)
Potential logline: Columbian American teen Luciana grapples with her crazy family, high school and her ailing grandmother who starts spilling shocking secrets about the family history.
Oye by Melissa Mogollon (Random House, May) I was charmed by this humorous and moving coming-of-age novel centered on Luciana, a Colombian American teen living in Florida with her over-the-top family. I was excited to see this because I think I've been short on Latino-centered stories (which is true of the entire business) and short on laughs. Check, check. The setup reminded me of Sixteen Candles by way of a telenovela, even though the story goes off in a very different direction. The engine of the plot finds the family evacuating ahead of a hurricane. Well, all but Luciana's grandmother, Abue, the eccentric family matriarch, who refuses to go. When they return, they find Abue ill and she soon receives a devastating diagnosis. All this prompts moving her into Luciana's room — a teen's nightmare scenario. Luciana finds herself made the caretaker and forced to grow up faster than she wanted, even as grandma cramps her teen life. But then Abue starts sharing devastating secrets about her mother and the family's history that sends grandmother and granddaughter on a path to acceptance about the revelations. These are two great roles that I think would be attractive to lots of actresses (even if I'm having a bit of hard time casting it in my head). There's also a lot of funny family and neighborhood dynamics. I liked the world-building that made the South Florida Latino setting really come alive. The novel has an interesting structure that I think would work on screen. The story is told through Luciana's phone calls to her away-at-college older sister Mari. We only get Luciana's side, so it is basically her narrating it herself with some implied cues from Mari. I generally like narrator devices for coming-of-age stories and this one reminds me of Felicity where she recorded tapes for her friend (voiced by Janeane Garofalo). Adopting a version of this would make the show work well and yes, I think of this more as a series than a movie. The plot of the book could easily be stretched across two seasons, maybe three. I think the big change would be that if you cast a really good grandmother, you'll probably want to keep her around for a while. REPS: UTA
That’s all for today. I hope everyone had a good holiday. We’ll see you next week for our regular subscriber-only picks.