Byline: Michael Fleming
Columbia Pictures and producer Laurence Mark have made a preemptive
acquisition of the upcoming Robert Crais novel "Demolition
Angel" for
$525,000 against $ 1 million, with Crais aboard to script
his thriller.
Story revolves around a female bomb squad detective and a male ATF
agent chasing a serial bomber. The Ballantine novel will be published
in May.
Crais is a former TV writer on shows including "Hill Street Blues" and
"Cagney and Lacey" who as an author is best known for the mystery
series featuring private eye Elvis Cole. The sale of "Demolition Angel"
is something of a surprise, if only because Crais has steadfastly
declined
king-sized offers for Elvis, both as movies and TV series. He's written
eight
of those novels, the last of which was "L.A. Requiem." "Demolition
Angel"
was his first non-Elvis effort.
The book was brought in by Mark exec Jonathan King and bought
preemptively, an encounter made possible by Mark's vain attempt to
buy
the Elvis books.
"I feel like that series is my life's work, and I've turned down about
19 or
20 offers since 1987," said Crais, who has been around
long enough to
see other author's creations go awry on the screen. "Larry wanted to
buy
Elvis for a TV series, which I thought would be wholly inappropriate
for
Elvis, but he admired the language and the work, and I admired the
films
he's produced. We gave him this book and he bought it." Will
Crais
consider allowing Elvis to reenter the building? "If this yields a
picture I'm
proud of, it's conceivable that after 20 turndowns something could
happen."
Crais is repped by Broder Kurland Webb Uffner's Tricia Davey,
Emile
Gladstone and Norman Kurland, working with lit agent Aaron Priest.