mary e. pearson

The Movie Deal was announced a few days ago apparently–the author is always the last to know–and I haven’t had a chance to make an announcement of my own, which is ironic because FOR MONTHS I have been holding this in and wanting to SPILL!

IT WAS AGONY! Yes, this was one of those "distractions" I mentioned!

But it was all hush hush and so I learned to keep my mouth shut, but as my absolutely brilliant agent said, the barn door is open now, so I can finally shout . . .

YES! The Adoration of Jenna Fox is going to be a movie!

Here is the news that has already been announced on CynopsisKids:

"20th Century Fox films options the feature film rights for The Adoration of Jenna Fox, author Mary Pearson's new young adult novel, in a mid to high six figures deal. Published by Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, The Adoration of Jenna Fox is schedule for release on April 29, 2008. Brad Silberling is set to direct the live-action movie, with Julia Pistor producing, and a writer deal set to be announced soon. The book is set in the near future and revolves around Jenna, a teenage girl who, like most teens, is trying to figure out who she is and how she fits in, but it this is a huge task for Jenna because she has just woken from a year-long coma and she remembers nothing about who she is, or was."

This all came about because my previously mentioned brilliant agent, Rosemary Stimola, introduced me--and Jenna--to film agent extraordinaire, Jason Dravis, of the Montiero-Rose-Dravis Agency. Boy does Rosemary know her stuff. Jason was completely amazing. He cared about Jenna from Day One and started the long process of finding others who cared about the story too. Nervous? Oh my gosh. But his calmness rubbed off on me. I talked to several wonderful producers but everything “clicked” as soon as I talked to Julia Pistor. She loved details in the story that I loved too, and I knew we were on the same page. From there I met Brad Silberling and it was another “clicking” moment. He “got”the story and the minute we met he started talking about the relationships between the characters. Relationships! Yes!

The whole process from start to finish was truly amazing. Yes, much nail biting too, but Jason and I had an agreement--he would do the negotiations and I would do the nail-biting and we both did our jobs brilliantly : ) We had several studios interested along the way but I thought it was quite serendipitous that Fox should end up buying it. What are the chances? But wait, that’s a line from my next book. I am getting ahead of myself. Back to . . .

I can finally SHOUT OUT!!!

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!