Rudin
Miramax Films and producer Scott Rudin have acquired screen rights to Richard Price's novel "Lush Life," just published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Price, who recently won the Edgar Award for his script work on HBO series "The Wire," will write the script. Deal for book is for mid-six against seven figures.
"Lush Life" is set up as a police procedural in which a restaurant manager and his bartender set out to walk a drunken friend home on Gotham's Lower East Side. One of the men winds up on the wrong end of a bullet, and a murder investigation reveals much about the city and the characters involved in a mugging gone wrong.
CAA brokered the deal.
While Price has always been a critical darling for novels that include "Clockers," "The Wanderers," "Freedomland" and "Blood Brothers," his latest is drawing the best reviews of his career. The novel debuts this week at No. 6 on the New York Times bestseller list.
Rudin, who shared the best picture Oscar with Joel and Ethan Coen for "No Country for Old Men," has a long history with Price that began before Rudin became a producer. At 19, Rudin was the casting director on the Phil Kaufman-directed adaptation of Price's first novel, "The Wanderers." Since then, Price co-wrote the Rudin-produced pics "Ransom" and "Shaft."
Price’s other script-work includes “The Color of Money,” “Sea of Love,” “Mad Dog and Glory,” and adaptations of his novels “Clockers,” “Freedomland,” “Bloodbrothers” and “The Wanderers.”
Major book buy is the third this year for Rudin: Columbia Pictures acquired Michael Chabon's "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" as a Rudin reteam with the Coens, and Miramax acquired upcoming Joshua Ferris novel "The Unnamed," an adaptation of which Rudin will produce.
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