The Rosie Project
Hot on the heels of the news that Sony Pictures has optioned screen rights for the bestselling debut novel, The Rosie Project, in a major film deal, World Book Night announces the global breakout novel as its first book club choice. The book club will run monthly from 1 May 2013 and will feature a newly published title each month recommended by WBN direct to their database of 80,000 readers. The titles will be varied but will fit with WBN's core ethos of recommending great books by best in class writers.
This laugh-out-load screwball comedy, published in the UK by Michael Joseph earlier this month, has already been unanimously praised by critics for its ‘unlikely romantic lead’ and ‘genuinely funny moments’, went straight into the top ten of the UK book charts and is still in the number 1 position in the Australian Independent Book charts where it was first published in January. Graeme Simsion delighted the World Book Night audience last Tuesday with his first ever UK reading at London’s Southbank centre where he shared the stage with popular WBN authors David Nicholls and Mark Haddon.
Julia Kingsford, CEO World Book Night said: ‘The World Book Night Book Club is our way of providing year round recommendations of really great books to our community of passionate readers, outside of the core list of WBN titles included in the gifting scheme. When I first read The Rosie Project I fell utterly in love with it and immediately wished I had hundreds of copies to press into people's hands to get them to read it. Being able to launch our WBN Book Club with it and potentially get it into the hands and hearts of thousands of readers is going to be fantastic.'
The Rosie Project introduces us to the unforgettableDon Tillman, a professor of genetics who may suffer from Aspergers and has never been on a second date until he embarks upon The Wife Project, designing a questionnaire to help him find the perfect partner: a punctual, non-drinking, non-smoking female who will fit in with his regimented lifestyle. When the unorthodox and free-spirited Rosie appears on the scene, it is clear that she fits none of his selection criteria, but she still may just be the perfect match to help turn his life around.
Sony’s Matt Tolmach and Michael Costigan are set to produce the film and the deal was closed by Columbia Pictures president Doug Belgrad and production president Hannah Minghella.
Hannah Minghella said: ‘We love this story. Not only does it have tremendous commercial appeal, but a wonderfully interesting, ground breaking lead character. There’s already been an incredible response to this novel in Australia and the UK and we think it will strike a similar chord in the States.’
Graeme Simsion said: ‘It’s been an extraordinary fortnight for me, with the publication of The Rosie Project in the UK and Italy, reading Rosie for World Book Night in London and having it selected as their first Book Club title, and Sony Pictures optioning the screen rights. A year ago, I had barely finished the manuscript and no one outside my family had seen it. ‘
Simsion was formerly an IT consultant, who, at 50, decided to learn how to be a screenwriter, then a novelist, before 34 publishers around the world bought rights to the book, first secured by Text publishing in Australia.
He originally wrote The Rosie Project as a film script before adapting it into a novel. He will now write the script for the Sony film which will be overseen by Sam Dickerman and Minghella.