Sale (Adaptation): “Serial Killer Days”

Sometimes the stories behind the sales are as good, if not better than the story itself. From THR:

Mark Carter was browsing at a Barnes & Noble in L.A. when his eye caught an intriguing title in the bargain bin: Serial Killer Days.

Carter, who had made an award-winning short called The Ballad of Little Roger Mead, devoured the satirical 1996 David Prill novel, set in a town that celebrates the annual arrival of a serial killer with a parade and a pageant.

“The macabre sense of humor was very Charles Addams-ish,” Carter recalls.

He tracked the author down in Minnesota and scored the movie rights. Then, after seeing the similarly subversive Thank You for Smoking, he reached out to its co-producer Dan Dubiecki, whom Carter had met at a shorts festival. Together they overhauled the script, and it made the 2008 Black List of most-liked unproduced screenplays.

After another rewrite, Dubiecki recently took it to Paramount, which released the Dubiecki-produced Up in the Air. Execs likened the tone to Scream and Disturbia. Seven years later, Carter now has a deal to write a new draft with an eye to direct.

Takeaway: Where to start! 

* Whenever you’re browsing in a book store, be thinking movie. 

* Don’t assume a book’s rights are owned by a studio. If you read something you like and think would make a great film, contact the author.

* When you see a movie similar in tone to your story, reach out to that movie’s producers. 

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