Pan Macmillan win bidding
auction to acquire ‘hot property’ Blake Crouch’s DARK MATTER
Editorial Director, Julie Crisp has acquired UK and
Commonwealth rights from Alexis Hurley at Inkwell Management to Dark Matter in a nice six figure deal after an
exciting multi-publisher auction based on a 140 page partial.
Imagine Stephen King’s The
Time Traveller’s Wife starring Jason Bourne, and you’ve got the central concept
of this pulse-pounding new thriller, that has already sold in a
fantastic preempt to Molly Stern at Crown for a seven figure deal and also
had film rights optioned by Sony Pictures
for $1.25 million after they beat five other film studios to take the
rights off the table.
The
novel will be published in summer 2016.
Dark Matter is the story of
Jason Dessen, a forty-year-old physics
professor living with his wife and son in Chicago. One night, after an evening
out he’s kidnapped at gunpoint by a masked man, driven to an abandoned
industrial site and injected with a
powerful drug.
But
the world into which he wakes, though seeming to be his own, is also different.
Seeking the stability of his family, he stumbles back home. To an empty house
that’s he doesn’t recognize.
Searching
for his wife is the only thing that keeps him going. But when he finds her –
will she even know him? Jason is on the brink of a stunning revelation: the
world he thought was his is completely wrong.
Dark Matter’s landscape is
the nature of reality and identity. Part lightning fast thriller, part enduring
love story it’s an exploration into the mysteries of existence and what makes us human.
In 2013, his novel Pines was nominated for ITW's Best Paperback Original Thriller Award, and his Wayward Pines series is currently in production as a FOX event series for 2015, directed by M. Night Shyamalan and starring Matt Dillon, Juliette Lewis, Melissa Leo and Terrence Howard. He has been featured in Time Magazine, the L.A. Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Entertainment Weekly. Blake lives in Colorado.
Of the
acquisition, Julie Crisp says, ‘Sometimes you get a script in that you know has
that sought-after ‘it’ factor. People
just can’t stop talking about it. Dark
Matter has everything to appeal, fast-paced action scenes, a fabulous
mystery, and a love-story which keeps you turning the pages to find out what
happens.’
Blake Crouch said of the deal:
‘Dark Matter is a special book for me,
possibly the one I've been working toward for my entire career. I'm thrilled
and honoured to have Julie Crisp and the entire team at Pan Macmillan on board
to help bring this story to UK readers’
There have already been rave
reviews from readers:
‘Not
just as high concept as they come but gripping from the start, Dark Matter is
the kind of fast-paced, man-on-the-run mystery that insists
you read on – and makes you paranoid that maybe your own life isn't real...’
Dave Bradley, Group Editor-in-Chief, SFX magazine
'Dark
Matter is like Jason Bourne meets Inception.
It is high concept that’s gripping and thrilling as well as terrifying but
altogether original. Brilliant’ David Headley, Goldsboro Books
About Pan Macmillan
Pan Macmillan UK is
one of the largest general book publishers in the UK, with imprints including
Macmillan, Mantle, Pan, Picador, Boxtree, Sidgwick & Jackson, Bello, Tor,
Macmillan Children's Books, Campbell Books, Macmillan New Writing and Macmillan
Digital Audio. Pan Macmillan is part of the Macmillan Publishing Group which
operates in over 70 countries.
@panmacmillan
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