Not satisfied with being your one-stop shop for nearly everything under the sun, Amazon.com is moving into the movie business.
Variety reports that the online retailer has joined forces with 20th Century Fox to bring Keith Donohue’s novel The Stolen Child to theaters. Amazon optioned the book in 2006, but Ron Nyswaner‘s script wasn’t finished before the writers’ strike hit, so the project went on hold; now that Nyswaner (Philadelphia, The Painted Veil) is free to finish his adaptation, the wheels are again in motion. From the article:
Donohue’s debut novel revolves around a man who was kidnapped by hobgoblins as a boy and replaced by a look-alike imposter. Book follows both versions of the character as they struggle through their new lives and environments.
According to Variety, Amazon won’t actually be financing Child — that responsibility will be shouldered by Fox — but has instead agreed to “heavily push the pic across its stable of websites,” including the IMDb. The article notes that Amazon’s sites accrued 59 million visitors in January.
Interestingly, Amazon doesn’t even have a head of film development; instead, an array of “executives across multiple divisions” will be responsible for shepherding The Stolen Child, in conjunction with Fox’s Marc Platt, who produced The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising last year.
Source: Variety
