IP Picks 🔎: An Incestuous Sports Feud
➕ Rom-com adventure, a burglar-for-hire procedural and more
Welcome to The Optionist! It’s hard to believe we are already halfway through January. I’m feeling optimistic that this really is the year — fingers-crossed — that Hollywood and the audience put Covid behind us and we get a big bounce back in the box office. There are a bunch of sequels and superheroes coming this year (Mission: Impossible, Indiana Jones, Ant-Man), but no doubt there also will be new and original IP breakouts, the same kind that have hit in recent years (like Station Eleven, Pachinko and The Dropout). I’m looking forward to Daisy Jones and the Six (Prime, March), Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret (theaters, April) and the Three-Body Problem (Netflix, TBD) to start.
We’ve got a fab list this week. I evaluate the prospects for adapting the wild controversy engulfing USA Soccer. It’s one of those stories that’s gone insanely viral, sucking in people far beyond the world of sports. We’ve also got:
A perfect procedural based on a memoir from one of the foremost female burglars-for-hire.
A different kind of biopic about a forgotten civil rights hero.
A super fun adventure rom-com with a Romancing the Stone vibe.
A fantasy adventure novel about pirates.
One housekeeping note: Because of the Martin Luther King holiday, there will only be my Friday subscribers-only picks next week. We’ll be back with the Tuesday column, the week after.
BOOKS I LIKE (current)
Heist/Drama
For fans of procedurals, Leverage, Lupin and Hustle
Potential logline: In the rarefied world of burglars-for-hire, real-life Jenny Radcliffe is the best. She’s never failed. And she’s the only woman in a world dominated by men.
People Hacker: Confessions of a Burglar for Hire by Jenny Radcliffe (Gallery UK, Feb.) This is a very cool real-life story about one of the world’s pre-eminent burglar-for-hire/people hackers, experts hired to break into museums, nuclear facilities, prisons, mobster's safes and cyberspaces to reveal their weaknesses. But it's not just spaces. Radcliffe is a master of psychology, an expert in getting people to reveal secrets, hence the term “people hacker.” (Think of her as the world's greatest password phisher.) To prove she's succeeded, Radcliffe leaves behind a tiny octopus figurine at her job sites. And she's never failed. There are maybe 50 people in the world who can do what she does, and it’s almost exclusively a men’s club. Within that group there are rivalries, relationships and betrayals. Plus, the story of how a working-class girl from Northern England fell into this line of work is also fascinating. Radcliffe recounts 18 of her favorite jobs here and the book could be the launching point for a fab heist-driven procedural — think something akin to Leverage or the overlooked British gem Hustle. REPS: Aevitas
Rom-com/Thriller
For fans of Romancing the Stone and Lost City
Potential logline: An amnestic is mistaken for her rogue spy twin and she teams up with a hot and grumpy operative to pose together as European honeymooners to clear her sister’s name.
The Blonde Identity by Ally Carter (Avon, Aug.) Known mainly for her middle grade and YA work (Winterborne Home, Gallagher Girls), Carter ventures into the adult space with this super entertaining story pitched as Romancing the Stone meets the Bourne Identity — who doesn't love that? Here, a woman who's lost her memory is mistaken for her twin sister who happens to be a rogue spy on the run from the CIA and a criminal organization. She teams up with a hot but grumpy male spy who's the only one who believes her. To stay alive they pose as newlyweds on their honeymoon as they race around Europe trying to clear her sister. Having seen (and loved) Lost City, I can't get Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum out of my head for this role. Also thinking Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, who have had such great chemistry across multiple movies. But I bet the industry could cast dozens of actor/actress couples who could make this work. I love the rom-com/spy mashup here. Fun. REPS: Anonymous
Fantasy/Adventure
For fans of Pirates of the Caribbean, Sinbad and Thief of Baghdad
Potential logline: A legendary female pirate of the Indian Ocean is lured back for one last adventure to save a comrade’s daughter, only to find her foe more powerful and her quest more perilous than she believed.
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty (Harper Voyager, March) First, can we agree that this is a fantastic cover? Dramatic, colorful, intriguing. I'd pick this book up if I were browsing in Barnes & Noble. The story is worthy of the cover. In an alt version of the 12th century, legendary Indian Ocean pirate Amina Al-Sirafi (a woman) is lured back into the game for one last adventure to save a former crew member's kidnapped daughter from the sorcerer Falco Palamenestra in exchange for a king's fortune (which will ensure her own daughter's financial future). Amina gathers the old band together and sets out on her quest. But the farther in they get, the more she realizes this mission is not all it seems and that Falco has powers far beyond what they imagined. But she can't back out because her own daughter's life is now being threatened. I love the world building here: Chakraborty taps into the rich mythology of the Middle East and Africa here and gives the stories her own spin. She creates a unique world populated by a diversity of characters. Amira is a gem of a lead. She’s got that Indiana Jones vibe (“You are an excellent judge of risk. Your problem is that you run toward it”) layered with being a devout Muslim, a mother and a person who has lived through several husbands and an encounter with a demon. This is just good old swashbuckling fun set in a neat fantasy world. And it’s the first in a trilogy so there's multiple movies/seasons to build out. I like this more as a movie than a series. This feels like it could be paired down to a great action-filled 2:30 adventure romp (with room for sequels) more fruitfully than a series that would draw out the plot. But that's just me. Also I suspect the international on a project like this would go fast. REPS: Echo Lake
JOURNALISM
Drama/Sports
For fans of Cobra Kai, Rushmore and The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom
Potential logline: When rising soccer star Gio Reyna is kept out of the World Cup by the coach who happens to be his dad’s best friend, an old scandal resurfaces and a lifelong bond is broken.
“U.S. Soccer Investigating Coach After Report From a Player’s Parent" by Andrew Keh (New York Times, Jan. 4) I bet I've gotten more emails and texts from friends about this story than almost any other in the last year. Granted, I'm a bit of a sports bro but the drama and the fractured friendships have really struck a chord (in the same way that I think Spare has struck a chord — people are endlessly fascinated by and can relate to these kinds of conflicts). The basic story is this: at the recent World Cup, U.S. Men's National Coach Gregg Berhalter sat rising star Gio Reyna for pretty much the whole tournament (pictured together at top). Reyna happens to be the son of Claudio Reyna, one of the greatest American men's soccer players ever and... wait for it... a childhood friend of Berhalter. Real friends. They played youth and high school soccer together. Claudio went to UVA, Berhalter to UNC, but both played on the national team from 1994 to 2006. Claudio was best man at Berhalter's wedding to Rosalind Santana, a UNC women's player who happened to be the teammate and roommate of Danielle Egan, who married... Claudio. Incestuous, much?
A few days after U.S. got eliminated by the Netherlands, Berhalter, at a conference on moral leadership (you can't make this stuff up), criticized an unnamed player for lack of effort. Berhalter thought the session was off the record but it soon leaked and everyone knew he was talking about was Reyna. In response, Danielle trashed Berhalter to USA soccer officials (many of whom played with Berhalter and Claudio), bringing up an incident from 31 years ago — not known to the public — where, as a college freshman, Gregg kicked his then-girlfriend, Rosalind. (Danielle says the point of telling the story was "that Gio was still being dragged through the mud when Gregg had asked for and received forgiveness for doing something so much worse at the same age.") Now USA Soccer is investigating. Rosalind is upset that this long-ago private incident is pubic. Claudio's reputation, heretofore sterling, is tarnished. Danielle looks vindictive and poor Reyna looks like he needs his mommy to fight his battles for him. There's so many layers to this story — listen to Roger Bennett on the Men in Blazers podcast describe this as “Fredo and Michael meets the Real Housewives of New Jersey on Jerry Springer.” A friend who played soccer at UNC with Berhalter and knows everyone in this little drama agrees, saying Berhalter always resented being in Claudio's shadow, adding an element of the middle-age ennui and inability to let go of the past themes from Cobra Kai to the story. I think another reason this resonates is because it taps into the craziness around youth sports amped up to 11. There's clearly a great podcast or salacious doc here, but is this drama a film? It still feels more like a series of great scenes in search of a narrative than a film to me. But if someone can crack this story, I, along with many others will be lining up to watch. REPS: I'm linking to the NYT story for an overview, but I think there's enough in public to develop this without underlying rights. Here's a timeline to help keep it straight in your head. The key is the writer's dramatic take. Listen to Men in Blazers (and here) and ESPN Daily podcasts for a sense of the drama (and chuckle at Bennett's hugely entertaining hyperventilated monologue on this — think John Oliver on speed and hallucinogenic mushrooms). And here’s a Washington Post column that leans into the sports parent angle.
Biopic
For fans of Erin Brockovich, Norma Rae and Wild
Potential logline: The life and times of civil rights activist Casey Hayden, from a small Texas town to Freedom Summer to feminist icon.
“In the Attics of My Mind “ by Casey Hayden (2010) Hayden, the author, died last week. It's okay if you don't know the name, but more people should. She was an unsung civil rights hero and there's a great biopic in tracing the arc of her life from young Texas beauty to frontline civil-rights activist, to early feminist icon. I'm thinking this would be perfect for... Taylor Swift. Seriously. The two vaguely resemble each other, but beyond that I think Swift would really relate to Hayden’s story of being a white woman in the South who felt like an outsider, and rebelled against being defined by her gender, or by the men with whom she was involved. So who was Casey Hayden? Born in 1937, Sandra Cason was a fourth-generation Texan, the granddaughter of the local sheriff and the daughter of the only divorced woman in town. She got involved in activism at U.T. Austin. Her famous speech at the National Student Association congress in support of the movement got her more deeply involved in civil rights protests and also introduced her to another rising young activist named Tom Hayden, who a year later would become her husband. (Yeah that Tom Hayden: Chicago 7, California State Senator, Mr. Jane Fonda.)
She became one of the first white people to join the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) alongside John Lewis, Julian Bond and others. She and Tom were part of the Freedom Rides. She helped organize Freedom Summer. She was widely respected. Everyone had a crush on her, as much for her brains, commitment and vivacious personality as her looks. (The marriage to Tom fizzled though, partially because they were both committed to their activism and partially because he was, how can we put this nicely, a shitty husband.) After Freedom Summer she became a lighting rod because of her criticism of sexism in the movement, which sounds pretty prescient today ("patriarchy was an issue," she would say). That and other things led to her drifting away after 1965. [( knew Casey a little through my friendship with Bond and enjoyed every minute I spent with her — she was curious, smart, a great raconteur, introspective about her own life, welcoming to a kid like me. It was easy to see why she was so liked within the movement.) There's a fascinating biopic in these early years about finding one's voice in a man’s world that I think would resonate with Swift or another young actress (Emma Watson? Florence Pugh?) looking to sink her teeth into a compelling biopic about an overlooked female hero. One of the great things about Hayden (and why I think this would work) is the way she saw herself in relation to the movement — as an ally, not a savior — and how she emphasized her need to work to change white opinion. This would be a different kind of civil rights movie, centered on a white protagonist. REPS: The family. Hayden wrote a few short memoirs (another of which is the story at the top) and gave an oral history that could be used as underlying material. Also, if you click the tweet, you can read the obituary Hayden penned for herself.