The VICIOUS movie deal: what happened, what it means, and what it doesn’t.

Hello, lovelies!!

So, yesterday, after months and months of hope, development, and waiting, this went up on Deadline Hollywood:

Before I go any further, allow me to get this out of my system: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Okay. Deep breaths. Onward. As many of you have guessed, this is the reason (or at least a large portion of the reason) I flew out to LA this past October.

The deal was already underway, and while I was out there, I had the immense pleasure of meeting not only my film agent (the incredible, and incredibly patient-with-V, Jon Cassir) but also EVERYONE involved on this deal.

Ridley Scott’s company, Scott Free, have been absolute champions of VICIOUS from the very beginning. They were one of the first producers to vie for the project, and have fought for it at every single stage so far.

Getting to meet Allison, my acquiring producer, has been an absolute highlight of my journey so far. You guys, when the article says that Allison “brought in the book” that is an understatement. She discovered VICIOUS, and she championed it in-house with infectious excitement, and none of this would be happening without her. She is hungry and she is brilliant and I want to draw hearts on her picture. These are my feelings.

And Story Mining. Story Mining itself may be new on the block but it’s made up of powerhouse players. I got to have brunch with Jeffrey and Evan in the penthouse of an extraordinarily posh building in Beverly Hills and I still haven’t fully recovered. These gentleman are savvy, passionate, and smart, and getting to sit across from them and nervously eat a croissant while they talked about my book–my characters, my world–is something I can’t even describe. They GET IT.

Everyone involved GETS IT and while I’m obviously over the moon to have a film deal, I want to try and stress how important it is to have people on board who aren’t just making a power play, or collecting a project “just in case”, but are well and truly committed to the narrative. In that respect, I feel incredibly blessed.

Now, the down and dirty.

VICIOUS has been optioned. What this means is that the involved producers/production companies have essentially bought the exclusive right to make the movie for the next couple years. If they need more time, they can buy more time.

For those who don’t know, a film option does NOT mean VICIOUS will necessarily be coming to a theatre near you. There are still so. many. doors. to unlock, to pass through. Screenwriters and scripts and directors and casts and such. And none of those doors are in my control. This door wasn’t either. All that I have done–all that I could do–was write the book.

What it DOES mean is that a team of producers believes in the project enough to take the first and vital step in that direction. As with book publishing, there are many, many doors a project needs to get through, but this is the first one, and having the opportunity to cross this threshold is immense, to say the least.

One of the coolest parts of this deal is that it’s not with a studio. It’s with a financier. Often producers pair up with studios (Fox, WB, Lionsgate, etc) and while that’s awesome, the fact is that studios are huge, and take on a massive amount of content, and then the vast majority of that content simply, well, sits. Waiting.

But having a financier attached, and specifically an amazing, energetic financier like Story Mining (these are the guys behind the upcoming Outlander tv series!), means that VICIOUS has a better chance of progressing through the next few doors. It still means we need green lights, but it also means that VICIOUS can be sold to a studio before production OR after, which is an immense luxury. Scott Free and Story Mining have a unique partnership…that is to say, they came together FOR this project. And that’s a great thing.

Will VICIOUS become a movie? I don’t know. I like to proceed with extreme caution where these kinds of hopes are concerned (see: things out of my control). But while I can’t tell you what will happen next, I can tell you that everyone attached to VICIOUS believes in this project. They are passionate about the story, and about Victor and Eli, Sydney and Serena, and I could not ask for more.

If you have any questions, comments, etc. leave them below!

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