EXCLUSIVE: Independent studio wiip has preemptively acquired An Honest Man, an upcoming novel by Michael Koryta, to develop as a television drama series, with Koryta attached to pen the adaptation.
An Honest Man tells the story of Israel Pike, a man just released from prison for killing his own father, who returns to his ancestral island home in northern Maine and quickly becomes the primary suspect when seven men, including two Senate rivals and the prosecutor who sent Pike to prison, are found dead aboard a yacht drifting offshore. Lt. Jenn Salazar of the Maine State Police takes the lead in the investigation on Salvation Point Island, operating with secrets of her own to protect.
The novel will be published by Mulholland Books July 25, 2023.
wiip’s Paul Lee, Mark Roybal and Nate Winslow will executive produce alongside Koryta.
During his tenure at 20th Century Fox, Roybal acquired Koryta’s Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021) which starred Angelina Jolie and Jon Bernthal and was directed by Taylor Sheridan.
“Nate and I are thrilled to be working with Michael again,” said Roybal. “An Honest Man is Michael at his apex: finely wrought characters dealing with real human pain seamlessly interwoven into a twisty, suspenseful narrative that focuses on the corrosive forces of class and violence in a coastal Maine town. Michael is going to adapt this into one hell of a show.”
“I love storytelling where the setting is an active character, and the Maine island communities offer an amazing contrast between Rockwellian mythology and primal reality, idyllic versus brutal, and nobody is realizing that sort of thriller on the screen better than Mark Roybal,” Koryta said. “He knows that true suspense comes only through authentic emotional investment.”
Koryta is the New York Times-bestselling author of 14 novels, a novella, and multiple short stories. His work has been praised by Stephen King, Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Lisa Unger, Dean Koontz, James Patterson, Dennis Lehane, Laura Lippman, Daniel Woodrell, and Sandra Brown among many others, and has been translated into more than 20 languages. His books have won or been nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Edgar Award, Shamus Award, Barry Award, Quill Award, International Thriller Writers Award, and the Golden Dagger, among other honors.
Koryta is repped by Angela Cheng Caplan of Cheng Caplan Company, Allison Binder of Goodman Genow Schenkman Smelkinson + Christopher, and Richard Pine of InkWell Management.
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