One film and several books...

From Publishers Lunch Weekly:

THRILLER:

David Morrell's THE SPY WHO CAME FOR CHRISTMAS, an action thriller set in Santa Fe that reinterprets the traditional Nativity story -- from a spy's perspective, to Roger Cooper at Vanguard Press, for publication in October 2008, by Jane Dystel at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management (US).

WOMENS/ROMANCE:

Diane Whiteside's THE BLUE-EYED DEVIL, in which a man's deadly skills are needed to keep an intellectual woman safe in early 1900s Europe after she steals secret plans which could trigger a war, THE ARIZONA DEVIL, where the values of the old west collide with the greedy extravagance of Victorian Newport society during a family feud, and one other historical, to Kate Duffy at Kensington, by Elaine English of Elaine English Literary (world).

FILM:

Film rights to Robert Harris's POMPEII, to Roman Polanski and Robert Benmussa, of RP Productions, along with Alain Sarde (the team that produced The Pianist), as an independent production, with Polansko directing.

UK:

Iowa Writers' Workshop graduate Alan Drew's debut novel telling the story of a family of Turkish Kurds who, stripped of everything in the wake of the 1999 Istanbul earthquake, are forced into an uneasy and potentially disastrous relationship with an American teen and his father in the tent camp they now all call home, to Arzu Tahsin at Bloomsbury, at auction, by Cathryn Summerhayes at William Morris Agency on behalf of Dorian Karchmar at William Morris.

NON-FICTION/BIOGRAPHY:

Former Village Voice film critic and New York Times writer Dennis Lim's biography of David Lynch, an in-depth examination of his four-decade film career as a producer, writer and director, to Tom Miller at Wiley, in a nice deal, by James Fitzgerald at the James Fitzgerald Agency (world English).

MEMOIR:

Gogo Lidz's ADVENTURES IN PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY, an account of being prescribed more than fifteen different stimulants, antidepressants, antipsychotics, and mood stabilizers between the ages of 16 and 21, to Karyn Marcus at Doubleday, by Kris Dahl at ICM (World).

David Shields' THE THING ABOUT LIFE IS THAT ONE DAY YOU'LL BE DEAD, coming face-to-face with his preternaturally vital 96-year-old father, he seeks evidence of mortality in his own nerve endings, in biological data, and in the existential statements of thinkers from Lucretius to Coetzee, and REALITY HUNGER: A Manifesto, making the case for the intellectual excitement and significance of nonfiction (in all the arts, not just writing) -- especially works that break down boundaries and risk a kind of nakedness, to Ann Close at Knopf, by Henry Dunow at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner (NA).

Christopher Campion's ESCAPE FROM BELLEVUE AND OTHER STORIES, a celebration of his life as the lead singer for the indie band Knockout Drops, and his misadventures and the alcoholism that landed him in Bellevue three times in two years before he got sober, an expansion of his one-man show which re-opens off-Broadway in 2007, to Erin Moore at Gotham, by Jane Dystel at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management (world).

NARRATIVE:

Myles Gregory Osborne's THE BODIES ON THE MOUNTAIN: The Story of May 2006 on Mt. Everest, about rescuing a sick climber at 28,500 feet, to Ellen Garrison at Viking, by Sydelle Kramer at the Susan Rabiner Literary Agency (world).

TRUE CRIME:

Novelist and true crime author Diane Fanning tackles the bizarre case of Lisa Nowak, the astronaut accused of attempting to murder a fellow astronaut's girlfriend because of her obession with her colleague, to Charles Spicer at St. Martin's, by Jane Dystel at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management (NA).mbourret@dystel.com

Wrap...