Random House Films, Take One

The Random House/Focus Features co-production deal has borne its first fruits. The Book Standard seems prematurely enthusiastic in its reporting on the company’s first two projects; if the phrase “setting a new standard in political films,” used to describe two properties that don’t even have scripts yet, didn’t come off the Random House Films press release, it should have. Even John Lyon, the production chief at Focus, brings things down a notch by referring to the projects as (emphasis mine) “earmarked for strong screen adaptations.”

Peter Gethers, the Random House Films head, talks to Reuters about the deals for Yasmina Khadra’s novel The Attack (which Nan A. Talese will publish later this spring) and LAT reporter Bob Dorgin’s investigation of the U.S. intelligence system, Curveball (due in 2007). “It’s a coincidence that the first two projects are both political,” says Gethers, “but obviously that’s partly our taste even though they are very different stories.” Considering the critical acclaim (and Oscar nominations) for The Constant Gardener and Syriana, it’s easy to speculate on how those tastes were formed. PW Daily gets much the same story, but with a quote that reveals one of the cross-promotional twists that makes Random House Films worthwhile: “What will change, we hope, is that when it comes time to release the paperback, we’ll be able to coordinate the tie-in edition with the film and make those trains run on time, which is certainly a big plus.”

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