Miramax Books has acquired the world English language publishing rights to Bling, a novel written by freelance reporter Erica Kennedy, and Miramax Films has secured the film rights. The announcement was made today by Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein and Miramax Books president and editor-in-chief Jonathan Burnham.
Bling, is a mold-breaking commercial novel about a larger-than-life hip-hop music mogul who sets out to turn a small-town singer into a crossover megastar. Based on the author’s insider knowledge of the music industry and its players, Bling is the first novel to cover the hip-hop world in such extraordinary, compelling detail.
The author, Erica Kennedy, is a Sarah Lawrence graduate who writes about the hip-hop world for Vibe, US Weekly and In Style.
“Bling is extremely timely project, offering a fresh perspective on the expanding world of hip-hop,” said Harvey Weinstein. “This is another great example of the synergy between our book and film divisions.”
“This is a brilliant, unputdownable, uninhibited commercial novel — an African-American Valley of the Dolls with massive crossover potential,” said Burnham. “It’s destined to be one of the big bestsellers of 2004.”
Michelle Raimo, senior vice president of production and development, and Jennifer Wachtell, senior vice president of creative affairs, brought the project into Miramax and will oversee the production on behalf of the Company, reporting to co-president of production Meryl Poster.
Burnham, Devereux Chatillon, executive vice president for Miramax Books and Miramax Films, and Steve Hutensky, executive vice president of business affairs for Miramax Films, negotiated the book and film deals on behalf of Miramax Books and Miramax Films. Erica Kennedy is represented by agent Ira Silverberg, of Donadio & Olson. Tad Floridis, also with Donadio and Olson, represented the author in negotiations with Miramax Films.
Miramax Films is currently developing an array of popular book titles into feature films including Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus’ best-selling The Nanny Diaries, Eoin Colfer’s Best-selling Artemis Fowl trilogy (which was published by Miramax Books) and Allison’s Pearson’s I Don’t Know How She Does It and I Think I Love You. Also being developed as feature films are Jonathan Stroud’s forthcoming series The Bartimaeus Trilogy (which is being published by Miramax Books) and Booty Nomad, the hilarious debut novel from Scott Mebus (also to be published by Miramax Books).
