I know it is not uncommon for an author selling the film rights to a book prior to it’s release date, but rarely do books head to Hollywood prior actually having a publisher.
Constantin Film has purchased the film rights to Dave Zeltserman’s forthcoming 28 Minutes. While the novel is slated to be released in the U.K. By Serpents Tale, the book has no publisher on this side of the pond.
“A hard-hitting crime thriller mixed with black humor and fast-paced action, Outsourced follows a group of desperate out-of-work software engineers who come up with a brilliant plan to rob a bank, only to see things go awry and finding themselves mixed up with deadly Russian mobsters and the Boston mafia.“
I am having mental imagines of the characters of Eastern Promises clashing with those of Office Space. Put that in your mind for a minute, you have to admit that is a fairly interesting concept.
Personally, I have not read Mr. Zeltserman (Sorry Dave!), but his work has garnered praise from all corners of the literary world. Authors (Including Ken Bruen and Bill Crider), reviewers (Our own Crimespree), booksellers…all have sung the praises of Mr. Dave and his work. Actually, having read much of these kudos, I just ordered Small Crimes and am looking forward to reading it.
Back to the deal:
The film is to be called Outsourced (the novel’s original title) and will be produced by Constantin Film’s Robert Kulzer and Impact Pictures’ Paul W. S. Anderson and Jeremy Bolt, along with John Tomko. Tomko has been attached to the film for almost three years, with Impact coming on board last November.
Kulzer, Anderson and Bolt have worked together previously on the Resident Evil series as well as the upcoming Ben Foster/Dennis Quaid horror flick Pandorum.
Kulzer is high not only on the story, but Zeltserman: “We are big fans of Dave Zeltserman’s novels, so it’s very exciting to turn one of them into a film.”
The screenplay will be written by Travis Milloy. Milloy wrote the screenplay for the aforementioned Pandorum.
Dave has seen this story bounce around for quite some time, having completed the novel back in late 2004. Even though he had moved on, the tale will still wandering around Hollywood in seatch of a home.
Dave: “I probably feel more relieved about it than anything else. This has been going on for almost 3 years with a lot different players along the way, and a couple of very close calls. At one point it looked like we were going to be greenlighted as a cable series, then last year it looked like we were going to get a film deal before things fell apart because of scheduling conflicts. The two constants in all this has been John Tomko and my film agent, Steve Fisher, and they both believed strongly in this project and kept pushing it forward until we connected with Jeremy Bolt at Impact Pictures and Constantin Film Development, who seem to be great partners in this. I know any film project is always a long shot, but the people involved in this seem too excited and serious about this project for it not to happen.”
Dave is also excited about the folks behind it: “I am thrilled that this project has found a home at Constantin Film and Impact Pictures and I am especially happy to have John Tomko as producer. I am a big fan of John’s films Falling Down and Ocean’s Eleven and feel that he has the right vision for Outsourced.”
