After optioning E.L. James’s 50 Shades of Gray last March for a staggering $5 million, Universal and Focus Pictures have finally attached some names to the project: Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti, who have been hired as producers. The film, however, is still in need of a director. (There’s no word on whether the studios will pick up Bret Easton Ellis, who has been vying for the job via a very enthusiastic Twitter campaign.)
At the New Yorker’s Page Turner blog, Michael Cunningham completes his white-knuckled, blow-by-blow account of why the Pulitzer Prize committee failed to award a winner this year.
A trailer for Dale Peck’s new novel, The Garden of Lost and Found, spoofs a certain Bob Dylan video and pays homage to a series of now-defunct book publishers—including Carroll and Graf, which was initially supposed to put out the novel. The book is now being released by Mischief & Mayhem.
Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, David and Goliath, will be about “what happens when underdogs confront the powerful.” It’s scheduled to come out sometime next year.
This week, Margaret Atwood celebrated the launch of Fanado, a new app that “allows artists and fans to meet, talk, interact and sign stuff—paper books, e-books, cards, t-shirts—over the internet.” Atwood began fundraising for the project this summer, and actually auctioned off spots in her forthcoming novel to raise money for the app. All donors who gave $10,000 or more had the option of getting name-checked in the book.
The New Republic challenges readers to guess whether quotes on excess and the American upper-crust come from Mitt Romney’s recent Hamptons fundraising speeches or from The Great Gatsby.
Unsatisfied with writing Yelp reviews, Cormac McCarthy is now trying his hand at Seinfeld scripts.
