The LA Times' Josh Getlin looks at an increasing trend by publishers to get more involved in the film business. Why? Money, of course. When a movie version of a bestseller like THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA racks up over $100 million in box office sales and Random House (who published the book) won't get anywhere near that windfall, they want as big a slice of the pie as they can.

"There is such a thing as film envy in many parts of the publishing community," said Sara Nelson, editor of Publishers Weekly. "Movies based on books can make a lot more money than books, and people in publishing have watched for years as film companies make profits on novels they've developed. They want a bigger role."

Which is why Random House announced earlier this year that it would be partnering with Focus Features on turning various literary properties into film. Other deals in place include HarperCollins' in-house partnership with Fox Studios (both are owned by Rupert Murdoch,) Penguin working with Walden Media on movies and tv shows, and continuing book-to-movie efforts by Simon & Schuster (owned by Viacom) and Hyperion (owned by Disney.) And St. Martin's Press recently announced that Jennifer Weis had been named its "manager of concept development," responsible for finding TV and movie ideas and translating them into books.

But if publishers have envy towards Hollywood, the reverse is definitely true, too. "There's publishing fear in Hollywood," said Amy Schiffman, an agent who handles book-to-movie deals for the Los Angeles-based Gersh Agency. "Some people on the West Coast are intimidated by those in the New York book business. They think publishers know something that they don't know — that they're smart, and more intellectual, that they really understand the written word better than others do."