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Don Pendleton executioner The book series is taking another spin on the big screen.
Sony Pictures has picked up the testosterone-fueled creative package Lethal weapon and Nice guysShane Black once again teams up with veteran action producer Joel Silver to adapt the paperback action-adventure novels. The package capture occurred when Sony acquired the complex screen rights to executioner Books, placing them in one home for the first time in decades.
Black will write the screenplay, focusing on directing, with frequent collaborators Anthony Pagarozzi and Charles Mondry. Silver will produce the film alongside Angry Films’ Don Murphy and Susan Montford, who have spent the past several years managing the complex rights to Pendleton’s creation.
executioner It was a lively book series that told the brawny, bullet-ridden adventures of Marc Bolan, a sniper turned one-man army fighting against the mafia, the KGB, terrorists, cybercriminals, or whatever the bad guys were in the era of his last book.
Initially Pendleton wrote the books but later ghostwriters were hired when Pendleton licensed the books, which at its peak produced upwards of two books a month and eventually numbered 464. The series ran from 1969 to 2020 (Pendleton died in 1995), sold hundreds of millions of copies worldwide, and spawned spin-off book, magazine and comic strip lines.
Hollywood has long tried to adapt Bolan’s adventures. William Friedkin made an attempt that would have seen Sylvester Stallone play Bolan. Burt Reynolds and Steve McQueen were also involved in some iterations.
Screenwriter Shane Salerno attempted to prepare a film adaptation at Warner Bros. In 2014, with Bradley Cooper attached to star, but it was doomed from the beginning. According to several sources, he only had a portion of the rights in his hands, as Sony had owned the domestic screen rights to the books for decades.
But this new deal sees all rights fall under the Sony umbrella, paving the way for a clear path.
the executioner The deal marks a full-circle moment for Silver, who tried to launch a film in the early 1990s. Black is a paperback and fantasy enthusiast, with Pollan’s stories among his favorites.
The reunion of Black and Silver is a confusing one. As writer and producer, the duo are respectively classic and well-known action films Lethal Weapon, Last Boy Scout, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and Nice guys between their collaborations. (The duo also worked together on Black’s film Amazon Play dirty Before the product was dropped due to allegations of verbal abuse.)
Meanwhile, Pajarozzi and Mundi are frequent Black collaborators. Pajarozzi co-wrote Nice guys With Black and co-writing Dirty money With both Black and Mondry. Mondri and Pajarozzi also co-wrote the film reboot starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Road housewhich is a silver product.
Murphy, one of the producers of the long-running series transformers Franchise and Montford are producers behind the upcoming horror thriller Faces of deathwhich IFC/Shudder opens on April 10. The Angry Films label is also developing a live-action feature adapted from the horror video game Poppy playtime And the classic pulp hero Buck RogersBoth with legendary.
The Pendleton estate is represented by Joel Gottler in the Intellectual Property Group, which also represents authors such as Jeffrey Archer, James Ellroy, and Michael Connelly.
The Lions are repped by WME, Greenlit Management and Goodman Genow. Bagarozzi and Mondry are also repped by WME, Greenlit Management and Goodman Genow.
