EXCLUSIVE: Amazon MGM Studios has landed film rights to James Patterson and Duane Swierczynski’s forthcoming book, Billion-Dollar Ransom. The feature take is currently in the works with Traffic Oscar winning scribe Stephen Gaghan adapting.
Producers include 6th & Idaho’s Matt Reeves and Lynn Harris and James Patterson Entertainment’s James Patterson. 6th & Idaho’s Rafi Crohn and James Patterson Entertainment’s Bill Robinson and Patrick Santa will executive produce.
The action thriller, which will publish by Little, Brown and Company in September, follows five members of a billionaire’s family, kidnapped at the same moment, from different locations—for the unthinkable ransom of a billion dollars.
The project reteams Amazon MGM Studios with James Patterson Entertainment, the banner behind Cross starring Aldis Hodge, which premiered on Prime Video on November 14 and debuted at No. 1 on Nielsen’s weekly streaming rankings with 1.36 billion minutes watched in just four days.
James Patterson Entertainment is also developing a docuseries about the November 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students and the subsequent investigation, arrest, and trial of suspect Bryan Kohberger, and Women’s Murder Club, and is currently in post-production on season two of Cross. Patterson has sold more than 475 million books and holds the record for the most #1 New York Times bestsellers, with over 100 titles debuting at #1.
6th & Idaho’s upcoming slate includes The Batman Part II, Clayface, and Dynamic Duo for Warner Bros., and The Wrecking Crew for Amazon MGM. Past films include The Batman and Lift. In TV, their award-winning series The Penguin was released last year by HBO and they are in production on a second season of Caped Crusader for Prime Video.
Patterson is represented by CAA, Bob Barnett at Williams & Connolly, and Peter Grossman at Lichter Grossman Nichols Feldman Rogal Shikora & Clark. Gaghan is represented by CAA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, and Hansen Jacobson. 6th & Idaho is represented by CAA, 3Arts, and Jackoway Tyerman.
Amazon MGM Studios has the Artists Equity movie Accountant 2 opening this weekend at the box office to a projected take in the mid $20M range. The first movie in the Ben Affleck franchise opened to $24.7M in 2016.
