EXCLUSIVE: Hulu has acquired the rights to develop Adrian McKinty’s upcoming novel The Island as a limited series. McKinty will executive produce with Shane Salerno and The Story Factory. The author’s previous novel The Chain was acquired by Universal and Working Title for Edgar Wright to direct. Wright is rewriting the Jane Goldman script. No numbers were forthcoming on the deal for The Island, but sources said that if the series goes, the author’s deal will exceed the $1.5 million that Universal paid for The Chain. Sasha Silver, head of drama series, was responsible for bringing The Island into Hulu.
The Island is described as an intense thriller that tells the story of a family trip that turns into a living nightmare. After a tragic accident, a young wife with her new husband and his two children find themselves being hunted by locals in harsh bushland. Her husband doesn’t really believe in her, the kids don’t trust her and the locals want to kill her. But Heather has been underestimated most of her life and she knows that she is capable of bringing this family together, becoming the mother her children need, even if it means doing terrible things to keep them all alive. Hulu believes the lead female role (the mother) will attract a major star.
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Universal Acquires Adrian McKinty Novel 'The Chain,' With Edgar Wright Directing & Jane Goldman Writing
This latest deal is a continuation of McKinty’s extraordinary rags-to-riches story. The son of a shipyard welder who grew up in a Belfast housing project during the “Troubles,” McKinty was accepted at Oxford on full scholarship — making him the first in his family to go to college — and then he wrote 17 books across two decades for paltry advances. Unable to support his wife and two daughters, McKinty and his family were evicted from their home. To pay his bills, McKinty became an Uber driver. Frustrated by where his life was, McKinty wrote a fan letter to author Don Winslow, expressing his admiration for Winslow’s novels and regret that he himself had not been able to make it as a writer.
Winslow, who at one point had been so frustrated by the paltry proceeds of his critically acclaimed books that he had pondered returning to be a safari tour guide, urged McKinty not to give up. He got his rep, Salerno, involved, and soon his Uber driving days were over. This after he hung up on the rep several times and Salerno writing a personal check to cover McKinty so he could quit driving and finished his book. That turned out to be The Chain, which became a global bestseller that sold for 7-figures to Little Brown, and became a hardcover and paperback bestseller, then went to Universal in a 7-figure deal. McKinty subsequently signed a new 7-figure deal with Little Brown last year for two more books. The author is repped by The Story Factory’s Salerno, who made the Hulu deal with CAA and attorney Richard Heller.
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