Posted: Tue., Mar. 24, 2009, 8:00pm PT

Producers lock up prison memoir

Variety alum Mike Jones to pen '15 to Life'

By Dave McNary

Jones

Producers B. Swibel and Barrett Stuart have optioned feature rights to Anthony Papa's prison memoir, "15 to Life," and have tapped Mike Jones to adapt.

The project marks Swibel's first foray into feature film after producing Broadway shows "Xanadu" and Will Ferrell's "You're Welcome America: A Final Night With George W Bush."

"15 to Life" centers on Papa's sentence in a New York maximum-security prison for a nonviolent drug offense. During his 12 years in prison he became an artist whose work was shown at the Whitney Museum, leading to then-Gov. Pataki granting him clemency.

Jones, a former Variety reporter, recently sold his adaptation of Steven Sherrill's "The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break" to the Gotham Group.