IP Picks🔎: Zorro Meets Harry Potter Adventure
IP Picks🔎: Zorro Meets Harry Potter Adventure
➕ wine robberies, serial killers and two aging sister spies avenge a fallen comrade
Welcome to The Optionist. As always, thanks for reading along.
The last couple of weeks brought a flurry of positive reviews for books we’ve featured in The Optionist. Back in December we flagged Shawn Crosby’s awesome All the Sinners Bleed. He was just on Fresh Air talking about the book and his life (fun aside: He moonlights in his wife’s funeral home). The New Yorker gave a long featured review by Louis Mennand to The Most Tolerant Little Town which we covered in April. The LA Times raved about our May pick The Bitter Past (“with strong plotting, explorations of little-known history and a complicated protagonist, this series’ future seems especially sweet. Here’s hoping future adventures of Sheriff Beck and his posse continue”), and the NYT called our April pick Anansi’s Gold a “riveting” read. And not a review but the arrest of the Gilgo Beach murderer reminded me that Tip Line, which we wrote about in February, was inspired by that case.
I don’t usually flag reviews for books we’ve featured — I figure you already know about these books — but the recent flurry of accolades caught my attention. They also underscore the value of an Optionist subscription in putting material on your radar ahead of the curve. If you’re calling about the rights to a book after reading a newspaper review or listening to Fresh Air, you’re probably too late. It also highlights the work that goes into curating the list. We sift through dozens of titles each week to narrow it down to our list of picks. When they show up in high-profile reviews or are featured in key media —an appearance on Fresh Air sells as many books as any program — it hits home that we’re getting it right, I think.
I really believe the cost of an Optionist subscription is one of the best deals around. For the price of your daily Starbucks fix or a nice weekly lunch you can find your next great project. But I also know that the strike has people feeling pinched and tightening their belts, so we’re making a good deal even better by extending our 30 percent off discount for anyone who hasn’t taken the plunge yet.
On to this week’s picks, which includes a new take on Zorro, a crazy robbery and a delightful caper involving two elderly female spies. The full rundown:
A charming thriller that’s part spy story, part heist caper, centered on two elderly retired female spies.
A horror thriller about how a teenager’s encounter with a serial killer continues to haunt his life as an adult that’s also a Rashomon-like tale about the unreliability of memory.
A fantasy action adventure re-imagining of Zorro set in an alt version of colonial Mexico featuring magic, fantastic creatures, a little romance and lots of swashbuckling fun.
A crime comedy that goes inside the world of high-end wine robberies.
A true crime drama about a laid-off war correspondent, turning to drug running for the thrills and the money
BOOKS I LIKE (current)
Thriller
For fans of Ocean’s 8 and Grace and Frankie
Potential logline: Two 90-something sisters, both retired WWII spies, plot to avenge an old colleague by stealing back family jewels taken by the Nazis.
The Excitements by CJ Wray (Orion, Jan.) I like mixing up something like a heist pic with an offbeat cast. In this case, it’s a couple of women in their 90s, sisters and ex-World War II spies, plotting one last great adventure. Josephine and Penny Williamson are two of the last surviving female vets of WWII and despite their advanced age, are still very much with it, witty and fun-loving. They’re something of beloved national treasures in their native England. When they get invited to Paris to receive the Legion of Honor, they see an opportunity to settle an old score and right an old wrong. During the war, they befriended August Samuel, a young Jewish man who died fighting for the resistance, and whose mother and sister disappeared in a German round-up. The sisters always suspected the family was betrayed by neighbors seeking to get their hands on the family’s jewels, including a priceless emerald ring. When the Samuels’ jewels resurface and come up for auction on the very day they are being honored, the sisters plot to steal them and avenge their friends. Well, you ask yourself, “What do ex-spies know about conducting a jewel robbery?” Good question. After the war, Penny put her espionage skills to use by becoming an incredibly successful international jewel thief. So we’ve got layer on layer of secrets and skills. I love the two leads here who are just super entertaining characters. There’s something fun and inspiring about characters defying the expectations of their age. I had a good time stunt-casting this in my head — Maggie Smith? Helen Mirren? Lily Tomlin? Judy Dench? There’s also a good part for a younger actor to play the sisters’ great-nephew, Archie, who accompanies them to Paris. I would tell part of the story in flashback so you could cast younger versions of Penny and Josephine. I understand why someone would be anxious about optioning this but I think the joie and wit of the leads would allow this to transcend the obvious demos (bringing in younger viewers to the heist story and older ones who identify with the leads). To me, the age of the lead characters is exactly what sets this project interesting and sets it apart. I’d market it by leaning into that. The story put a smile on my face. REPS: Jennifer Thomas/United Agents (U.K.)
Horror/Thriller
For fans of Slender Man and Elephant
Potential logline: An encounter with a serial killer as a teen continues to haunt Wilder Harlow as an adult, especially when a hit novel fictionalizing those events causes him to question what really happened that summer
Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward (Tor Nightfire, Aug.) There are two stories interwoven here — an ‘80s one about a summer of teen friendship, adventure and the hunt for a local serial killer, and a second psychological thriller set in the present about the unreliability of memory and the ways in which our pasts hang over us — that work well together. In terms of structure and themes, it reminds me a bit of We Were Liars (currently in production for Amazon). The first part centers on Wilder Harlow, who spends a summer on the Maine coast after his parents inherit a cottage from a relative. While there he befriends two other teens, local Nat and summer resident Harper, a Brit he crushes on. They get caught up in the local legend of the Dagger Man, a serial killer supposedly stalking the Maine Coast. Over the course of the summer, they discover a body and secrets about the Dagger Man that unravel their friendship. So there’s a very solid classic teen thriller here. The second half, set in the present, finds Wilder returning to Maine to come to terms with the fact that a college friend has ripped off his unfinished memoir about that summer and turned it into a bestselling novel. Here’s where it gets a little convoluted — the whole situation causes Wilder to doubt his own memories about what happened and even question his own sanity and grasp on reality. (He starts seeing things and having hallucinations.) This part of the story explores what really happened and how we remember things. In a blurb, Lauren Beukes (Shining Girls) called it an “origami puzzle of a book,” which is spot on. It’s also why I think this book would make for a crackerjack limited series that takes place across three time periods — the original summer, college (when the memoir gets stolen), and then back in Maine in the present — and constantly moves between the three, showing us slightly different versions of the story each time and keeping people hooked as they try to discern what’s accurate and what’s misdirection. What feels a little convoluted on the page actually works well when you think about how it would look on screen. I think the story and jumping between perspectives and time periods work better visually; it helps simplify the story and streamline the telling and retelling of what happened. Think of a coming-of-age horror story with the atmospherics and vibe of that awesome first season of True Detective. Sounds weird. But trust me, good weird. REPS: UTA
Thriller
For fans of Zorro and Harry Potter
Potential logline: In colonial Mexico, a young girl uses her magical powers and shape-shifting ability to become a masked hero, inspiring the local people to rise up against their Spanish masters.
Sun of Blood and Ruin by Mariely Lares (Harper Voyager, Feb.) There’s a lot of promising world-building in this gender-swapped Zorro retelling that adds layers of Mesoamerican mythology and magic to the story. (The way Lares did this reminded me a little of how Marvel re-worked Namor as coming out of Mesoamerican and not vaguely Greek/Roman mythology — a change I loved even as a diehard Namor fan since I first started reading comics.) In an alt version of Spanish-ruled colonial Mexico, teen Leonora de las Casas Tlazohtzin has been promised to the heir to the Spanish throne. She’s also a masked vigilante, a Robin Hood type fighting for the people, called Pantera, who can shapeshift and wield other kinds of powerful magic. She rallies the indigenous people to fight the colonizing Spanish who are trying to snuff out the local magic. There are tons of cool mythical and fantastical creatures in this world. The comp isn’t perfect but you can catch the Harry Potter vibe in the magic, young protagonist, coming of age narrative and fantastical creatures. You could build an ongoing series in this world and around this character that is part action-adventure, part coming-of-age story and part fantasy thrill-ride, full of romance and swashbuckling action. Loved it, though I recognize the period setting and potential SFX might discourage some. I would just say that this is basically a Western in setting, an easier lift than recreating other periods and, while there's big budget version of this stuffed with special effects, I think there's an ongoing series that could be more economical. REPS: Kimberly Guidone/Storm Literary
JOURNALISM
True Crime/Comedy
For fans of A Fish Called Wanda and Masterminds
Potential logline: The hunt for the thieves who stole $600,000 of rare wine from an L.A. shop.
“$600,000 in stolen wine: Inside one of California’s biggest high-end alcohol heists” by Daniel Miller, Andrew J. Campa and Richard Winton (Los Angeles Times, July 28) I'm fascinated by heist stories that involve stealing unusual stuff. (My all-time favorite of these is the Canadian maple syrup robberies which was the subject of a Netflix doc and an in-development Amazon comedy. I also loved this story we flagged about the theft of the world’s biggest coin) The recent theft of 800 bottles of wine valued at more than $600,000 from Lincoln Fine Wines in Venice, Calif. certainly qualifies and makes for a fun journey into the crazy world of oenophiles that could be the basis for a whodunit procedural. I would also note that this isn't a one-off thing. There's been a rash of similar thefts over the last few years. The version riffing off of this story that I have in mind would focus on the PIs hired to crack the case. It would take you inside the world of black-market high-end wine sales and how you fence this stuff while exploring the crazy lengths people will go to satisfy their passions. To me, this is more a comedic story than a dramatic one, and would work best as a lighthearted procedural romp more than a crime thriller. Part of what makes this fun and suitable for something a little playful is what's being stolen and the world it plunges us into. I was texting with Miller, one of the writers of the story, who described it as “like Sideways, but with guns and car chases and a crime ring,” which I liked. There's always something a little funny to me about fanatical collectors — the owner of the store is more concerned with the wine spoiling than the monetary losses. This might not be to your taste (ugh, that’s a bad pun), but there’s a cool story set in the world of wine obsessives. REPS: Los Angeles Times
True Crime/Drama
For fans of Breaking Bad
Potential logline: After losing his job at a newspaper, journalist John Koopman became a drug runner to pay the bills, but also for the thrills.
“How I Became A Modern Bootlegger: Even after 25 years in journalism, I never knew humanity the way I did working at a strip club and moving product” by John Koopman (LitHub, July 27) I loved this story about how journalist John Koopman fell into becoming a drug smuggler after he lost his job at a newspaper. What I really liked is how he's frank about the mix of economic motivations and thrill-seeking that propelled him into a life of crime — after covering the war in Iraq on the ground it turns out that covering school board meetings feels really, really anti-climatic. Even if you don't cross over into illegality I think that mix of economic uncertainty and middle-life boredom is relatable to many. The obvious comp here is Breaking Bad, but I think this story is distinct from that. Walter White was motivated by the feeling of finally succeeding at something after being thought of as a "loser" by many people. Koopman is chasing thrills. And while money motivates both, I think Koopman's circumstances as a victim of the Great Recession and Covid is more broadly relatable. Who doesn't feel economically insecure after the last decade and a half of events? I think of this as Breaking Bad by way of Fun with Dick and Jane, that is something a little lighter, a little more comedic, something where the stakes are a little lower but still important. Also, like the original Dick and Jane, which used the economic squeeze of the ’70s as a plot point, I'd lean into Koopman being a victim of today's economics. I see this more as a movie than a series (in part because Koopman isn't trying to build the kind of empire that lends itself to an ongoing series) but there's room to go both ways. REPS: Interested? Ping me and I'll connect you.
That’s a wrap for today, folks. We’ll see you next week for our next roundup of the best optionable material out there.