Ever since Peter Chernin left his job as CEO of Fox Entertainment and set up his own production company, Chernin Entertainmen (which is based at Fox, but run independently), he’s been setting up deals left, right and centre, with plans to make his new company a major player in the film industry.
Now Variety reports that he’s landed his first major book adaptation deal (alongside fellow production company New Regency), by winning a bidding battle for the screen rights to the novel, My Name Is Memory, which is due to be published next summer.
The book, written by Ann Brashares (of The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pant fame), is the first of a three-part series, with the initial novel dealing with a college-age couple who meet, but it turns out things aren’t as simple as they seem. The man in the relationship announces that he believes that their souls have been reincanated numerous time over hundred of years, but while they’re soulmmates, they keep losing each other. He says he can remember their past through all their various lives, but she can’t recall any of it. Presumably she’ll initally think he’s a sort of psycho, stalker, nut-job as soon as he tells her, as that would be our reaction.
Apparently the story has elements of Twilight and The Time Traveler’s Wife, which are certainly two good titles to mention if you’re hoping to get Hollwood interested in something.
Despite only officially leaving his Fox job at the end of June, Chernin has already started working on everything from a blockbuster retelling of the story of Moses to TV thrillers, to The Deep Blue Goodbye (which is due to star Leonardo DiCaprio). While others, such as Joe Roth, have struggled after leaving their studio job and going independent, Chernin is certainly giving it his all.