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Thursday, March 12, 2009

Books This Week in Book Deals

Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 4:05 PM

Audrey Niffenegger, who wrote The Time Traveler's Wife, sold her second book to Scribner for over 4 million dollars. I kind of liked TTW, but, seriously, 4 million bucks? What recession? The book will be published this fall and is reportedly a novel about twins who have psychic abilities in a weird apartment building.

Sully Sullenberger, the hero pilot who saved the day in New York a few months ago, is publishing two books in a reported 3 million dollar deal. The first book is a memoir. The second is a collection of "inspirational poetry."

And Clive Cussler, the author of all those awful Dirk Pitt novels, sued the production company that adapted his novel Sahara. The resulting film, which starred Matthew McConaughey, was a box-office dud. Cussler claimed that the producers devalued his work by making a shitty movie. The case has gone on for years, but yesterday the judge decided against Cussler, and determined that Cussler will have to pay the producers nearly 14 million dollars in legal fees. I'm of the opinion that anything that causes Clive Cussler pain is good. To celebrate, let's watch the trailer of Sahara:

Jesus Christ, that looks bad.

Comments (17) RSS

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They should both be fined.

Posted by You you you you on March 12, 2009 at 4:14 PM

I've always liked Steve Zahn. I think it's unfortunate that the only good movie (that I can think of right now) that he's been in is Rescue Dawn.

Posted by O RLY? on March 12, 2009 at 4:24 PM

Fourteen million dollars in legal fees? Put that in perspective: that's a million hours of census-taking, or about 500 census workers for a solid year.

Posted by Fnarf on March 12, 2009 at 4:24 PM

@2,

You didn't like Out of Sight?

Posted by keshmeshi on March 12, 2009 at 4:36 PM

I was unfortunate enough to read Sahara. How could a movie make it worse?

Posted by beatgrl on March 12, 2009 at 4:45 PM

How can someone who enjoys Jason Statham movies claim to have cinematic taste?

Posted by Just Askin' on March 12, 2009 at 4:51 PM

I loved Time Traveler's Wife, but 4 million? How did we get so totally screwed up about how much money people's work is worth?

Posted by Patti on March 12, 2009 at 5:00 PM

It looks no worse than the National Treasure movies, and they were, inexplicably, big hits.

Posted by Westside forever on March 12, 2009 at 5:00 PM

I read Sahara and saw the movie; trust me, the movie was worse. But yeah, the book was nothing to get excited about.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty on March 12, 2009 at 5:07 PM

I dunno - Penelope Cruz, some good tunes , William H. Macy -- it's not that bad on cable. I am certainly glad I didn't pay to see it though...

Posted by Good Grief on March 12, 2009 at 5:16 PM

Sahara was bad, but at least had the decency to be bad in a funny way. Any movie in which the characters find a Civil War ironsides buried in the Sahara Desert and use its inexplicably still-working cannon to shoot down a helicopter is not a movie that is not meant to be taken seriously. Clive Cussler never had a case, and he should have known it.

Posted by Greg on March 12, 2009 at 5:21 PM

Oops, accidental double negative. Sorry.

Posted by Greg on March 12, 2009 at 5:22 PM

Yes, both the book and movie were bad. It's a shame because The Sahara is such a great desert it needs a book and movie better then CC can deliver.

Posted by Lawrence Molloy on March 12, 2009 at 5:54 PM

Hey, Audrey was a friend of mine many years ago, and TTW was a excellent book, but 4 mil is a bit over the top. How many first time authors could they have financed with 3/4 of that and still paid Audrey a sizable chunk of change.? And if she felt she was worth more, she could have gotten a contract that gave her higher royalties per copy, thereby proving her point.
It's distressing when publishers claim they can't publish new authors, but will spend a year's budget on a single title.

Posted by BakerB on March 13, 2009 at 6:08 AM

That Thing You Do is a good movie with Steve Zahn. "Hey, that's the Oh-NED-ers."

Posted by Propaniac on March 13, 2009 at 9:08 AM

Sahara is okay in that stupid-brain-dead-action-movie genre way. Park your mind at the door, look at the cheese- and beef-cake and watch the pretty explosions. At least it had a sense of humor about itself.

Posted by schweighsr on March 13, 2009 at 9:37 AM

Sahara has a ridiculous plot, a toe-tappin' Southern Rock soundtrack, and lots of eye candy and tongue-in-cheek quips. If you like that sort of thing (I do), it's very enjoyable. If you're looking for true-to-life characters and sensitively realized story, you probably shouldn't be considering a movie adapted from a Clive Cussler book.

As for Clive Cussler claiming that Sahara the movie tarnished the Cussler brand, I had the opposite experience. After I watched Sahara, I thought I'd give one of Cussler's books a try. I started Raise The Titanic, but it was so godawful I couldn't get past the first few chapters.

Posted by Kalakalot on March 13, 2009 at 1:34 PM