Respected producer Scott Rudin finally got his mitts on an Oscar this year, after No Country For Old Men won Best Picture – and it seems that he’s already got designs on another one.
Rudin, along with Miramax Films, has snapped up the rights to Lush Life, the acclaimed new novel by Richard Price, author of Clockers and Freedomland, with Price set to adapt the script. And, although no director is yet attached, we expect this one to be bothering the Oscar balloteers come 2010.
A police procedural with the hidden depths typical of Price’s work, Lush Life starts off as an investigation into the murder of a man on New York’s Lower East Side, but spirals into a character study that reveals much (it says in the blurb) about the city and the people involved in a mugging gone wrong.
Rudin and Price – who recently won the Edgar Award for his work on The Wire – go way back. Rudin was the casting director on The Wanderers, Philip Kaufman’s adaptation of Price’s novel, when he was just 19 and, since becoming a producer, has engaged Price’s scripting services on several occasions, most notably on Ransom and Shaft.
Price has also written several other scripts, including adaptations of Clockers and Freedomland, and originals including Sea Of Love and Mad Dog And Glory.