One jazzy skeleton coming up for £1 million and sharpish
Derek Landy's website
The Daily Telegraph UK reminds us today over here that Dubliner cabbage planter Derek Landy, 32, begins his UK tour next month in conjunction with the celebrated worldwide launch of Skulduggery Pleasant, the first in a trilogy series with its fictional hero hoping to rival JK Rowling's final Harry Potter tale this summer.
Harper Collins UK has paid a cool £1 million for the deal - its biggest global one todate - that saw a tight bidding war last year, with film rights being discussed. Selling his story proved an overnight success for college dropout Landy who still suffers from a stammer.
The hardcover title, Skulduggery Pleasant talks about the adventures of 12 year old Stephanie who joins hands with a multi-talented snazzy and witty skeleton and his wisecracking detective friends, to fight off an ancient evil.
Landy says he has plots for at least 7 other books in the series and sees himself playing God to his characters. He thought up the idea and plots while working 8 straight hours on his parents' cabbage farm. He so badly wanted to be a writer that he would return home and write for another 2 to 3 hours afterwards, remembering word for word, everything he'd thought up in the fields.
Landy has also written two successful Gothic film thriller screenplays in the past; one on zombies called Dead Bodies and the other, Boy eats Girl, where everyone dies. HarperCollins has already launched its online marketing programe for children/ya based on the Skulduggery Pleasant series while Landy never has to look another cabbage patch in the eye again. This of course, with the exception of any dishy cauliflower lunch presented by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay himself!
Harper Collins UK has paid a cool £1 million for the deal - its biggest global one todate - that saw a tight bidding war last year, with film rights being discussed. Selling his story proved an overnight success for college dropout Landy who still suffers from a stammer.
The hardcover title, Skulduggery Pleasant talks about the adventures of 12 year old Stephanie who joins hands with a multi-talented snazzy and witty skeleton and his wisecracking detective friends, to fight off an ancient evil.
Landy says he has plots for at least 7 other books in the series and sees himself playing God to his characters. He thought up the idea and plots while working 8 straight hours on his parents' cabbage farm. He so badly wanted to be a writer that he would return home and write for another 2 to 3 hours afterwards, remembering word for word, everything he'd thought up in the fields.
Landy has also written two successful Gothic film thriller screenplays in the past; one on zombies called Dead Bodies and the other, Boy eats Girl, where everyone dies. HarperCollins has already launched its online marketing programe for children/ya based on the Skulduggery Pleasant series while Landy never has to look another cabbage patch in the eye again. This of course, with the exception of any dishy cauliflower lunch presented by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay himself!
Labels: Derek Landy
posted by Suzan Abrams, email: suzanabrams@live.co.uk | 08:04
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