Deadline is reporting of a new adaptation on the horizon as Charles Leavitt has just landed another high-profile adaptation gig, inking with 20th Century Fox to adapt Michael Koryta’s book THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD, which Steve Zaillian’s Film Rites is producing.
The project has been out to several top guys since Fox acquired rights to the thriller last fall and it was BLOOD DIAMOND scribe Leavitt’s take that impressed.
Adapting a novel to the screen can be a real pain in the ass because the writers have to pick and choose which details to leave in as well as take out. The good thing about THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD is that not only does it already have a badass title (one in which I hope they hold onto), but it offers a premise that has multiple layers to it that could make for a very edge-of-your-seat thriller. I was completely unfamiliar with the story up until I read this news, but it sounds like an intense read with one hell of a set up. Here's what it's about:
The novel revolves around a teenage murder witness lost in the Montana wilderness, the twin assassins hunting him, a survival expert tasked with protecting him, and a forest fire that threatens to consume them all.
This could be an intense film with the right talent behind it, and Leavitt is no doubt a great place to start. Hopefully we'll be hearing more from this one soon.
Jennifer Connelly starred in BLOOD DIAMOND