EXCLUSIVE: An eight-figure bidding struggle has damaged out on the rights to a brand new thriller novel from the unlikely pairing of James Patterson and MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson).
Deadline understands that guide world’s highest grossing writer, Patterson, and YouTube’s greatest star, MrBeast, have collectively penned the novel, which has shades of Squid Sport. We hear UTA has put the novel out for submission and is shortly gaining traction.
Movie, TV and novel rights are being shopped, with sources near the method saying “eight-figure presents” are being fielded. One supply mentioned it was going beneath the title The Most Harmful Sport, however this hasn’t been confirmed and we hear different titles are being thought-about.
Logline on the guide reads: “Gamers battle to outlive lethal checks held in harmful places world wide, as they battle to grow to be ‘The One’.
There may be additionally an accompanying nonfiction guide within the package deal, we hear.
Prolific thriller author Patterson has constantly raked in tens of millions of {dollars} via books such because the Alex Cross novels, together with Alongside Got here a Spider. A lot of his works have grow to be movies and TV reveals, together with Prime Video sequence adaptation Cross final yr. His literary collaborators embody Michael Crichton, Invoice Clinton, Viola Davis and Dolly Parton. He was awarded the Nationwide Humanities Medal, in addition to the Nationwide Guide Basis’s Literarian Award for Excellent Service to the American Literary Neighborhood. He additionally has obtained an Edgar Award and 9 Emmys. Patterson is repped by CAA and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler, and Clark.
MrBeast’s recognition has exploded over current years, and he now has essentially the most subscribers on YouTube, presently sitting at 378M. He has pushed into quite a few areas of enterprise. His Prime Video sequence Beast Video games earlier this yr grew to become the streamer’s most-watched unscripted present after racking up 50 million views in 25 days. The present was topic to a lawsuit when contestants claimed they had been uncovered to unsafe circumstances and sexual harassment throughout filming. MrBeast has rejected the claims, saying they had been blown out of proportion.
