Man alive, the New Year is hopping with excitement! Remember Open Book Press, the indy publisher formerly owned by Mike Gagnon? Its new owners put out a press release on the PRweb yesterday. We have no idea what this means for Scootles or anyone else, but it’s good to know they are jumping into the fray.
Independent publisher, Open Book Press, has now joined forces with the Hollywood based company, Dark Dance Productions LLC, with an emphasis on turning popular literary works into box office blockbusters.
“When the opportunity arose to acquire Open Book Press, we jumped at the chance,” says Dark Dance co-president, Doug Crill. “The idea of gaining access to some ‘hot’ literary material and then turning that material into movies seemed very exciting to us.”
Crill is referring to several of the releases from Open Book Press including his own best selling graphic novel series, Cry Wolf.
“It was a logical choice for us to assume ownership of Open Book Press given the fact that our book is doing so well,” Crill explains. He, along with business partner and illustrator, Daniel J. Frey, have combined their efforts to create one of best new graphic novels of last year according to the well respected comic book and graphic novel website, ComicFanatic.
In 2005, Cry Wolf was used as a teaching text at the University of New Mexico for a class on how werewolf folklore has influenced literature down through the ages. The first two novels of the series can be found on library shelves in the US and Canada, with the final two installments due for release sometime in 2007.
Crill went on to say that several Hollywood personnel have expressed an interest in bringing Cry Wolf to life on the silver screen. As for the rest of the Open Book Press arsenal, you can expect anything from murder mystery novels, to books for the reluctant reader and much more.
For more information about Open Book Press and Dark Dance Productions, you may wish to visit www.openbookpress.com or www.darkdanceproductions.com.
