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Canongate has signed a "comic masterpiece" from "Family Guy" and "American Dad" creator Seth MacFarlane.
A Million Ways to Die in the West will be MacFarlane's debut novel, and will be published on 4th March. Jamie Byng, Canongate m.d. and publisher, signed rights to the novel in a deal with Rudolph Walsh and Cathryn Summerhayes at William Morris Endeavour.
Meanwhile a film based on the same story, co-written, produced and directed by MacFarlane, and starring Charlize Theron, Liam Neeson and Amanda Seyfried, will be released in the UK in June.
The book and film are set in Arizona in 1881, and follow Albert, a hapless sheep farmer who teams up with a cowboy criminal to try and win back the woman who spurned him. MacFarlane himself will take the part of Albert in the film.
MacFarlane is the creator and voice actor on Emmy-nominated sitcom "Family Guy", and directed, co-wrote and produced the film "TED", which won an Academy Award for MacFarlane's songwriting. His debut album, "Music is Better than Words", debuted at number one on the iTunes jazz charts in 2011 and received two Grammy nominations.
Byng said: "Not only is Seth MacFarlane's unholy debut novel wildly souped up, deliciously dirty, perfectly paced and beautifully written, but it also manages to have a genuine, pulsing heart. All of us at Canongate are thrilled at the prospect of publishing what we believe is a comic masterpiece, a book that will delight all his fans but also bring him many more new ones. It could be the funniest love story ever written."