H'w'd books Deaver with 2-tome deal

No deal closed, but S&S confident he'll stay with pub

By JONATHAN BING

Deaver

FRANKFURT -- Thriller writer Jeffrey Deaver has kept tongues wagging at the Frankfurt Book Fair, where news emerged that the "Bone Collector" author has sold two novels to Hollywood and inked a $1 million two-book deal with U.K. publisher Hodder & Stoughton.

Deaver's U.S. hardcover publisher Simon & Schuster hasn't closed a deal for the two new books, which have yet to be written, but S&S head David Rosenthal told Daily Variety he was confident that Deaver would stay with the house. "Jeff is getting enormous," Rosenthal said. "He's had one of the largest sales increases, book to book, of any author I've ever seen."

S&S already has two additional Deaver books under contract: "Speaking in Tongues," and "The Blue Nowhere," which is scheduled for a summer release. A forensic thriller set in Silicon Valley, "Nowhere" was just optioned by producer Joel Silver for Warner Bros. in a deal that could reach a substantial six figures.

An early Deaver thriller, "Manhattan Is My Beat," just reissued in a revised edition by Bantam, has been picked up by new L.A.-based shingle Double B Prods. The novel is being adapted by Double B partners John and Lisa Bishop. John Bishop's screenwriting credits include "Drop Zone" and "The Package."

Deaver was repped in the deals by Deborah Schneider of Gelfmann Schneider, Vivienne Schuster of Curtis Brown in the U.K. and ICM's Ron Bernstein.

Riefenstahl row

Jodie Foster has raised hackles in Hollywood with her plans to develop and star in a film about German director Leni Riefenstahl. But German publisher Taschen is making hay of the Hollywood connection. Riefenstahl, 98, whose 1934 film "Triumph of the Will," heralded Hitler and the Nazi party, made a rare public appearance Thursday to promote Taschen's new retrospective of her work, "Leni Riefenstahl -- Five Lives."

Riefenstahl told hundreds of reporters and onlookers gathered for a press conference that she has severed all ties to Foster and the biopic, under development with Foster's Egg Pictures banner.

"Years ago Jodie Foster rang and said she wanted to make a documentary about me," Riefenstahl said through a translator. But Riefenstahl, who alleged that "99% of what's been published about me is wrong," said she declined to sign a contract that gave her no rights to refute the contents of the film.

"Jodie Foster can make the film, but it is not the official story of Leni Riefenstahl," she said. "It is her representation of my life."

Riefenstahl, who remains unrepentant about working for Hitler in the 1930s, was introduced by British film historian Kevin Brownlow, who called criticism of the director's career "unbelievably hypocritical." Riefenstahl, he said, "has taken the blame as if she started WWII all by herself."

Taschen chose to pour fuel on the controversy. The press conference was preceded by a short docu that intercut recently shot footage of Riefenstahl scuba diving with scenes of marching Nazi storm troopers from "Triumph of the Will."

Grinch clinch

In a rare case of book and film synergy come full circle, Random House Children's Books has reached a licensing deal with Universal Pictures to issue a new line of Grinch books. The series will hit stores nearly a decade after the death of the Grinch's creator, Theodor Geisel, and a month before release of the Jim Carrey extravaganza "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas," from Universal and Imagine Entertainment.

The longtime publisher of Dr. Seuss, Random House first printed "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" in 1957. The new series features 10 Grinch books in various formats, including special editions of the original book. Lead title, "How the Grinch Stole Hollywood," chronicles the film's production and special effects.

Random House children's division publisher Kate Klimo said the film, which opens Nov. 17, described the film as "firmly rooted in the classic book where it needed to be, and taking flight from it when the moments were right."