George Clooney and Warner Brothers specialty studio have teamed up to buy the movie rights to "The Innocent Man," John Grisham's first non-fiction book.

"The Innocent Man" tells the true story of Ron Willamson. A former baseball player who spent 11 years on death row in Oklahoma wrongly convicted of rape and murder.

The terms of the book deal were not disclosed by the studio. But Daily Variety is reporting that Grisham will be paid a seven-figure sum for rights to his book and receive a share of the gross receipts should the film be produced.

The film would be produced by Smoke House, the company co-owned by George Clooney and his long-time friend and collaborator, Grant Heslov.

Read the whole story from Reuters

Posted by Mike Laverdiere at 12:57 AM | Permalink

Newly published author, and Harvard Student, Kaavya Viswanathan has had her two-book deal cancelled and her first novel withdrawn from sale permanently after accusations of plagiarism.

The publisher Little, Brown initially said "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life", Viswanathan's book, would be revised. However, the company has now announced it will not publish a new edition.

Opal Mehta tells the story of a brilliant student from New Jersey, who is rejected from Harvard because she has no social life.

Viswanathan, last month, apologised for some similarities between her book and works by author Megan McCafferty. She said the similarities were unintentional promising to change her novel for future print runs.

Crown Publishing Group, publisher for Megan McCafferty, claims more than 40 passages of "Opal Mehta" contained either identical language or common scene and dialogue structure to two of McCafferty's books.

The publisher declined to comment on whether Kaavya Viswanathan would have to return her reported six-figure advance.

On The Web:
More details at the BBC Website
Hachette Book Group USA (Home of Little, Brown and Company)

Posted by Mike Laverdiere at 2:14 PM | Permalink