Spielberg going 'Up River' without book deal
With more and more novels turning up as screenplays before finding homes with publishers, it was only a matter of time before a film director turned book editor. Enter novelist-screenwriter William Harrison's latest unpublished novel, "Up River."
While the book is still without a publisher, it was just optioned by Spielberg's Universal-based Amblin Entertainment as a likely directing project for the director/producer himself. But not before the author made changes suggested by Spielberg.
"Spielberg wanted more action at the end of the novel," said Harrison, who's now working on the screenplay. "My original ending was very melancholy and personal, and Spielberg is not in the business of making melancholy movies. So he suggested an alternate ending with much more action, which I wrote into the book. He has been instrumental in its revision."
All of which begs the question: Which comes first, the novel or the script?
New tradition
Traditionally, books have been published first and then sold to a producer or movie studio. But for many unsold literary properties, the cachet of a movie deal can be just what it takes to get a publisher.
John Grisham's best-selling "The Firm" was sold in manuscript form to Paramount Pictures (which will release the Tom Cruise film on June 30) before Doubleday Dell picked it up. Ironically, it was turned down by nearly every major publisher before the film sale.
"A buzz developed because of the film submission," said Grisham's editor, Doubleday editor-in-chief David Gernert. "It became clear that the movies were hot for it." And two of "War of the Roses" author Warren Adler's books, "Private Lies" and "Cries of Laughter," were sold to studios for hefty prices before ultimately finding publishers.
Agent Peter Lampack, who found publishers for the Adler books, said, "We offered the 'Private Lies' manuscript to Hollywood first because we were afraid of leaks first by publishers."
Not that a film sale always guarantees a publishing deal.
William Morris agent Todd Harris, who sold both Adler books to the studios while he was an agent at Triad Artists, also sold another book, Larry Strauss' "Recruiting Violations," to producers Rob Fried and Cary Woods. But unlike the Adler books, that property never found a publisher.
'River' saga
The "Up River" deal with Amblin was handled by William Morris agent Amy Schiffman in collaboration with Morris exec VP and worldwide head of literary operations Owen Laster.
Written last year, the book is a contemporary romantic action-adventure about a gambler who goes up an African river and wins a village from a sheik.
It's described as "Casablanca" meets "Heart of Darkness" and Indiana Jones, and sources familiar with the material said that Spielberg sees it as a possible movie franchise.
According to sources, Spielberg decided to option the manuscript the day after he took it home. Harrison, whose screenplay credits include "Rollerball" and "Mountains of the Moon" (based on his book "Burton and Speke") soon found himself in Los Angeles meeting with Spielberg and his longtime associates, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy.
With the movie deal in hand, his New York literary agent Laster is now searching for a publisher. "The fact that it will be a motion picture from Amblin gives it a higher economic value," Laster said.
As for the idea of Spielberg editing his book, Harrison says the filmmaker's "thoughts were movie-right and right in a literary sense also."
But Doubleday's Gernert questions the mix-and-match approach. "I think that books and films from the same story are completely different animals," he says. "Generally speaking, I don't think there could be all that much from a reading by film people that could be helpful to a novel."
That is, until now.
