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HarperCollins has bought world rights for the film tie-in edition of a memoir of skier turned "poker princess" Molly Bloom, which is soon to be an adaptation starring Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba and Kevin Costner.
The deal was originally negotiated by Carrie Thornton, editorial director of New York-based HarperCollins imprint Dey Street Books with Lisa Gallagher at Defiore and Company in Manhattan. Tom Killingbeck, commissioning editor for HarperCollins UK imprint William Collins, recently acquired UK Commonwealth rights.
The tie-in edition of the 2014 memoir, Molly’s Game: From Hollywood’s Elite to Wall Street’s Billionaire Boys Club, My High-Stakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker (Dey Street Books), will be published by HarperCollins in nine markets and five languages starting with the US, Canada and Australia in October. It will be published in the UK on 14th December in paperback original to accompany the film release of the same name, Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut, on 26th December. The book will then be published in France, Spain, Japan, Holland, and Poland throughout 2018.
Molly’s Game is billed as a “behind-the-scenes look at the life she created, the life she lost, and what she learnt in the process”.
A HarperCollins spokesperson said: “Molly Bloom reveals how she formed the most exclusive, elite, high-stakes underground poker game the world had ever seen – an insider’s story of excess and danger, glamour and greed. In the late 2000s, Molly Bloom ran the highest stakes, most exclusive poker game in existence. Molly’s game became the game for those in the know-celebrities, business moguls and millionaires – until it all came crashing down around her and she lost everything.”
Killingbeck said: “Cinema audiences may assume Molly Bloom to be an outlandish fictional creation, but I can assure readers that she is a real person, and her book is based on real events.
“As a riotously entertaining memoir that charts a tightrope walk between the high life and the low life, Molly’s Game is up there with The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort and Catch Me If You Can by Frank W. Abagnale but Molly’s story is tempered with a lot of heart.”
Bloom said: "Living this story was an extraordinary, sometimes challenging experience, being able to write and publish the book has been a great honor, now seeing the book brought beautifully and brilliantly to life by Aaron - with so much heart and humanity - is beyond anything I could ever have imagined."
Earlier this year Killingbeck acquired world rights to to Dunkirk: The History Behind the Major Motion Picture by Joshua Levine which explored the "harrowing" true stories that inspired the epic action thriller “Dunkirk,” the film. The title recently spent four weeks at five straight weeks as Paperback Non-Fiction number one, until the week ending 19th August.