Paramount Makes 7-Figure Film Deal For The Chain; A Life Changer For Uber Driver-Turned-Hot New Author Adrian McKinty

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures has acquired the screen rights to Adrian McKintys novel The Chain in a deal that calls for a guaranteed low seven figure payday for the author, an Uber driver until a series of deals for the book changed his life. The book will be published by Little Brown/Mulholland on July 9.

The Chain tells the story of Rachel, a mother who learns that her eleven-year-old daughter has been kidnapped. The only way to get her back is to kidnap another child. Her daughter will be released only when that next victims parents kidnap another child. If Rachel doesnt kidnap another child, or if that childs parents dont kidnap a child, her daughter will be murdered. She is now part of The Chain, a terrifying and meticulous chain-letter-like kidnapping scheme that turns parents from victims into criminals. The book tells Rachels harrowing story as victim, survivor, abductor, and criminal. What the masterminds behind The Chain know is that parents will do anything for their children. But what they dont know is that in Rachel they have finally met their match, as Rachel is smart and tough enough to have survived a bout with cancer, and she is determined to break The Chain while getting back her daughter.

The film will be produced by Shane Salerno and The Story Factory, which repped the author in the deal along with CAA.

Quite a turn of events for McKinty, the son of a shipyard welder who grew up in a Belfast housing project during the “troubles.” He was accepted at Oxford on full scholarship — first in his family to go to college — and wrote a bunch of books over two decades but not enough to support his wife and two daughters. To pay his bills, he did odd jobs from construction to picking up fares as an Uber driver. It wasnt enough: he was evicted from his home because the book writing didnt pay him a living wage. Frustrated, McKinty wrote a fan letter to Don Winslow, the author of bestsellers including The Cartel and The Force. McKinty described to Winslow as a fan, and his letter amounted to McKinty expressing regret that he himself had not been able to make it as a writer.

Winslow, who at one point found himself so frustrated by the paltry proceeds of his critically acclaimed books that hadnt broken through that he pondered a return to an early side job as a safari tour guide, urged McKinty not to give up. He referred McKinty to Salerno, who with tough negotiating and brash marketing campaigns helped Winslow become a perennial bestselling author with several seven-figure movie and TV deals under his belt. Salerno, also a screenwriter who co-wrote the Avatar sequels, has collaborated with Winslow on adaptations of his books. When Salerno followed up, McKinty was reluctant and hung up more than once. Finally, Winslow and Salerno called together, learned McKinty had been eviRead More – Source

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