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Film deal for Wilbur Smith Somalia novel
The Bookseller
Wednesday, March 28, 2012

UK-based Reelart Media has bought film rights to Wilbur Smith's Those in Peril (Pan Macmillan), with plans for a release in 2014.

The novel, a contemporary thriller about a pirate kidnapping off the coast of Somalia, featuring ex-SAS soldier Hector Cross, is published in mass market paperback this week (29th March).

The film deal was handled by Kevin Conroy Scott at the Charles Pick Consultancy in association with Jason Wheeler at Brightwork films, selling to Reelart's Daniel O'Toole and Brian O'Callaghan. Reelart producer Matt O’Toole said the company "firmly believe[s] that the character of Hector Cross has the potential to be a 21st-century equivalent to Fleming’s Bond, Ludlum’s Bourne or Clancy’s Jack Ryan".

Smith will publish a sequel to Those in Peril, Vicious Circle, also starring Cross, with Pan Macmillan in early 2013. The following year will mark Smith's 50th anniversary as a novelist.

The publisher has produced a games app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, available free from the Apple iTunes App Store to tie in with publication of the mass market edition.

The game is described as "an action-packed adventure where gamers take on the role of an elite intelligence agent". The app also connects to Smith via his website, Facebook page and Twitter feed, and gamers can sample the e-book and/or audiobook via direct links to iBooks and iTunes. The app is being promoted to the over 130,000 fans who follow Smith online.
 
Pan Mac fiction publisher Jeremy Trevathan said he was "delighted" to be working with Reelart. "This, together with our latest developments in online social media and gaming, assert our ongoing strategy to bring Wilbur Smith’s fiction to a new generation of readers as we approach the 50th anniversary."

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