Best-selling author Vince Flynn has signed a comprehensive new deal that will keep his work in the CBS Corporation for the foreseeable future.

First,
CBS films has acquired the film rights to Flynn’s novels and plans to launch a franchise based on his character Mitch Rapp. Rapp, a CIA operative, has been the star of eight of Flynn’s nine books.

Amy Baer, President & CEO of CBS Films:
“One of my first goals for CBS Films was to find a character-based movie franchise. With the Mitch Rapp series, Vince Flynn has created a relatable, modern, post-9/11 hero for the action/thriller genre. It is an amazing collection of creative material that offers tremendous potential for a smart, energizing new film franchise with appeal to a wide range of movie- going audiences. The publishing world has always provided abundant source material for motion pictures, and we’re fortunate that our corporate cousins at Simon & Schuster attract and nurture some of the world’s best literary assets.”

Vince Flynn:
“I couldn’t be happier with this deal. Signing up for four more books, keeping the movie in the family with CBS Films and getting Lorenzo and Nick to sign on as producers … it’s the outcome I’d always hoped for. Loyalty is a big thing to me. Simon & Schuster, Atria and Pocket Books have stood by me for 10 years and done a magnificent job publishing my novels. Lorenzo and Nick have been trying to bring Mitch Rapp to the big screen since 2004, so there is a level of commitment on their part that is very comforting to me. They understand Mitch Rapp, as does Amy Baer and her team. It is going to be a lot of fun watching CBS Films hit this thing out of the park.”

Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Nick Wechsler will produce the films.

No mention was made as to which book they would use as the basis for the first film.

The second part of this deal is a worldwide four-book deal that includes the audio rights. The plan is to release the first of these in 2010. It will simultaneously be released in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia.

Not bad for a guy that self-published his first novel.

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