No One Goes Alone: Erik Larson story to get feature film adaptation

Penguin Random House Audio released No One Goes Alone (buy it HERE), author Erik Larson’s first published work of fiction, back in September, and now Chernin Entertainment has picked up the rights to turn the story into a feature film. No One Goes Alone tells the story of

pioneering psychologist William James, a prominent member of the Society for Psychical Research, as he leads a team of researchers to the remote Isle of Dorn in 1905 to investigate the cause of several mysterious disappearances, most notably a family of four who vanished without a trace after a weeklong holiday on the island. Was the cause rooted in the physical world, or were there forces more mysterious and sinister at work?

The idyllic setting belies an undercurrent of danger and treachery, with raging storms and unnerving discoveries adding to a growing sense of menace. As increasingly unexplainable events unfold, members of the isolated party are unsure whether they can trust their own eyes, their instincts, one another — or even themselves.

Before writing No One Goes Alone, Larson published eight non-fiction books – and Deadline points out that six of those became New York Times bestsellers. There are currently adaptations of two of Larson’s non-fiction books in development: an adaptation of In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin is set up as a feature film at StudioCanal and Playtone, with Tom Hanks on board to star. Meanwhile, Keanu Reeves is in talks to star in a Hulu limited-series adaptation of The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America. Martin Scorsese will be directing The Devil in the White City and executive producing the show with Leonardo DiCaprio.

With names like Tom Hanks, Keanu Reeves, Martin Scorsese, and Leonardo DiCaprio involved with adaptations of his non-fiction work, it will be interesting to see who will be drawn to the adaptation of the fictional No One Goes Alone.