NEW YORK -- New Line has ponied up low-six figures against $1 mil for "Geeks," a nonfiction book about a hapless duo who used the Internet to escape their isolated Mormon town in Idaho.
Jon Katz's book will be published next month by Villard. Lawrence Bender and Laura Bickford are in talks to produce.
Katz's book was born from a Rolling Stone article about Jesse Dailey and Eric Twilegar, two friends from a small town in Idaho mired in dead-end minimum wage jobs until they discovered the world of computers, using spare parts to build their own. Dailey now attends the U. of Chicago and Twilegar works for an online travel company.
NL veep Amy Henkels brought in the project; she'll develop it with Jake Weiner.
NL's Amy Goodman closed the deal with Sterling Lord Literistic's Jody Hotchkiss and Flip Brophy, with attorney Joel McKuin of Colden McKuin & Frankel.
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