Gotham Group stalks 'Paparazzo'

Production company options Zjawinski article

By TATIANA SIEGEL

The Gotham Group, the management and production company behind "The Spiderwick Chronicles," has optioned Sonia Zjawinski’s article "My Paparazzo: Hiring a Stalker Is Easy."

Article, which details Zjawinski’s attempt to turn become a self-made celebrity by hiring a paparazzo to follow her around New York City for a day, was originally published in the October issue of Wired Magazine.

Gotham is developing the article into a bigscreen project and is shopping the article to major book publishers. Gotham’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Jeremy Bell are producing.

"Sonia experienced that beneath the facade of fame, celebrity has a price and you must be careful what you wish for," Goldsmith-Vein said.

Gotham Group has slate of more than 30 film and TV projects set up at various studios including the Garry Ross-helmed "Simon Bloom: The Gravity Keeper" at Universal, the Shawn Levy directing vehicle "The Devil You Know" at 20th Century Fox and "Stargirl" at Montecito/DreamWorks.

On the publishing front, Gotham Group represents film rights for such clients as Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins in the U.S. and U.K. and Dark Horse Entertainment.