New Line buys laffer 'Then'
Nicholson's novel about novelists nets coin
New Line bought the rights to the comic novel, which has circulated in the literary community over the past week.
The story revolves around a handsome slacker, more interested in womanizing than writing, who's aghast to discover that the school loser has penned a novel. The slacker convinces his nemesis to use his mug for the book's photo, and when the book hits, the loafer is suddenly big on the author circuit.
New Line execs Donna Langley and Renee Witt brought in the book, and the studio will assign a producer to shepherd it. Nicholson's novel will be published this August in the U.K. by Victor Gollancz, with U.S. pub rights expected to be auctioned shortly.
The author was repped by Joel Gotler of AMG-Renaissance, working with literary agent Sam North of London-based A.P. Watt.
