Color Force and Annapurna Pictures have acquired the film rights for Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple. Little, Brown and Company released the book in December 2012.

Color Force founder Nina Jacobson (producer of The Hunger Games film series) and partner Brad Simpson will produce.

Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, the screenwriting duo behind the 2009 film (500) Days of Summer, will write the script. Color Force’s Bryan Unkeless, Annapurna Pictures’ Ted Schipper and the author will serve as executive producers.

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The ninth annual Morning News Tournament of Books (ToB) will commence in March 2013.

So far, 15 finalists have been revealed. Three titles from the “pre-tournament playoff round” are currently in the running for the sixteenth and final slot. We’ve included the two lists below.

Here’s more from the announcement: “The ToB is an annual springtime event here at the Morning News, where 16 of the year’s best works of fiction enter a March Madness-style battle royale. Today we’re announcing the judges and final books for the 2013 competition as well as the long list of books from which the contenders were selected.”
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Everybody is thinking about scripts. Even The New Yorker‘s recent issue featured two stories about scriptwriting.

Today’s guest on the Morning Media Menu was Maria Semple, a television scriptwriter turned novelist. Before writing her new novel, This One Is Mine, Semple wrote for shows that included Beverly Hills 90210, Saturday Night Live, Mad About You, and Arrested Development. Semple (pictured, via) delivered some tough advice for writers considering moving into scriptwriting.

Press play below to listen.

Here’s an excerpt: “I would say pick your imploding industry. I think the era of huge TV writing money is totally over. I know from talking to my friends. Right now, if I was working in Hollywood, I would make a half to a third of what I was making four years ago…it’s going through a lot of brutal changes. The amount of viewers is scary compared to what it was ten years ago, five years ago when there was real money and careers to be made.”

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