Neil Strauss' famous seduction book
'The Game' was once in film development at Sony and it always dumb-founded me as to how they failed to get an adaptation off the ground. Anyone who has read the well-plotted book will know that it's a ready-made movie package. Just imagine Tom Cruise's character from 'Magnolia' (who was based on Strauss) as the supporting character/mentor to a sexually incompetent guy/group of guys who are shown exactly how to attract the woman of their dreams. But when the love of our lead's desires is immune to it, and the life of easy-lays with any girl he meets becomes unfullfilling, he ditches 'The Game' and returns to being himself. BAM, there's your movie! Sony couldn't manage it, and neither have Spyglass so far who now have the rights. If you need help guys in making the book into a movie,
send me an email. I will work for free! To my surprise, it could be another of Strauss' works that makes the big-screen first.
Mike Fleming at Deadline reports that Sony have snapped up the rights to
'Emergency!: This Book Will Save Your Life' for
Robert Downey Jr to produce and potentially star (well, if he's bored of playing Sherlock/Tony Stark anytime in the future that is).
The book, on closer reflection, is no less ripe for film than the aforementioned. 'Emergency' follows Strauss who one day decided to upsticks his family offshore and became anti-establishment and who learns to live in the wilderness and 'remake himself as a gun-toting, lock-picking, plane-flying, government-defying survivor'. Or what some people call a mid-life crisis, I suppose? If Downey Jr eventually attaches himself to star in this material, then that's a movie I'd sure like to see.
Allan Loeb ('Wall Street 2', '21') is capable of some good writing and it's his task now to turn Strauss' novel into something Downey Jr would want to star in.