Angels. Angelology. Verlaine. Nephilim. So there you go, hitting the Dan Brown Lotto.
Sony won a fierce bidding war for “Angelology,” the debut novel by Danielle Trussoni in the vein of “The Da Vinci Code.” The studio picked up the movie rights for Will Smith’s Overbrook and Marc Forster’s Apparatus shingle, which will co-produce. “Angelology” is proving to be one of the hotter literary properties in a while. The novel sparked a bidding war amongst several publishing houses, ultimately ending up at Viking earlier in the week. The screen rights chase began right after. – from THR
Angelology revolves around a 23-year old nun, who teams with an angelologist named Verlaine as they race to thwart a group that tries to corral the destructive powers of a race of angel/human hybrids called Nephilim. Their goal is to destroy mankind. Verlaine starts out working for the bad guys–who then tried to kill him–before he teamed with Sister Evangeline in a search for ancient artifacts that are the only things that can stop the Nephilim. – from Coming Soon
Sony Pictures Entertainment has purchased the film rights to “Angelology,” a novel about destructive angel/human hybrids, industry sources say. Variety reported Friday that after the first novel from author Danielle Trussoni was picked up for publication this week, a bidding war for the book’s film rights began between various studios. – from UPI
The auction for “Angelology” came on the heels of a Viking publishing deal for what is potentially a three-book series. The screen rights auction pitted Columbia against Warner Bros., which bid for Akiva Goldsman’s Weed Road, and Universal, which bid for Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. – from Variety
To recap: Author Danielle Trussoni wrote one memoir about her dad that was pretty good. So then she wrote a novel about a nun and angels and bad guys and a character named Verlaine. This book as “cross between “Da Vinci Code” and “National Treasure.” This was supposed to be a good thing though I’d slap anyone who said that about something I wrote. ["Hey Joshua, great story! It's like a cross between poop and gum!"] Anyway, Trussoni’s didn’t seem to mind. Her book sold for “high six figures.” A week later, that book was optioned by Sony to be made into a movie in a “seven figure deal.” – from Gawker
