EXCLUSIVE: Physician turned #1 NYT bestselling author Robin Cook is partnering with Euro Gang Entertainment, the entertainment company of Gianni Nunnari and Simon Horsman, on a pair of new projects for film and TV.
The first, Bellevue, will be a feature based on Cook’s forthcoming novel of the same name, which marks a departure for the author as a dark and atmospheric work of horror. Slated for publication in December, the book tells the story of Mitt, a first-year surgical resident at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. Mitt has a long and dark family history: his physicians’ forebears are guilty of grievous sins, extreme instances of medical malpractice committed at the very hospital where he now studies. Set against the gloom of supernatural haunting, and amidst gruesomely accurate surgical imagery, Bellevue is the story of supernatural vengeance for the sins of Mitt’s ancestors.
The second project being developed under the partnership is a procedural series centered on Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery, two of Cook’s most iconic characters, who front 14 of his bestselling novels. Stapleton and Montgomery are a pair of medical examiners working in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in New York City who see the worst of crimes committed in the city. First as colleagues, and later as husband and wife, they venture beyond their medical duties, becoming amateur detectives who look to solve crimes ahead of, and sometimes despite, law enforcement. Their marriage is shaken when Laurie becomes Jack’s boss, as Chief Medical Examiner, and Jack’s flagrant disregard for authority is now Laurie’s problem to handle.
“I am looking forward with great anticipation and excitement to be working with Euro Gang to bring some of my books to the screen for two main reasons,” Cook told Deadline. “First and foremost, it’s because of the quality, integrity, and impressive number of the projects the two main principals have produced in the past, and secondly because they obviously ‘get things done’, which is not a ‘given’ in the world of Hollywood.”
Stated Nunnari and Horsman, “We enjoy a great friendship with Robin and are huge fans of his books, and I doubt we will ever work with another author who has sold more of them! We can’t wait to bring Jack and Laurie to a global audience as a medical / crime procedural, and Bellevue, a feature film, as a cerebral supernatural thriller.”
To date, Cook has seen dozens of his novels top the New York Times bestseller list, with his books together selling more than 400 million copies to date, by some estimates. An ophthalmologist who began writing fiction during a stint in the Navy in the late 1970s, his debut novel The Year of the Intern was published to critical acclaim in 1972. But it was the medical thriller Coma, published in 1977, that catapulted him to literary stardom as a master of the medical thriller.
Founded last year to develop, finance, and produce feature films, scripted and unscripted television series, stage productions and other live events, Euro Gang Entertainment most recently set a three-picture and series deal with BAFTA winner Marco Kreuzpaintner (Those About to Die), as well as a TV series and a feature deal with Italy’s Alfred Film. Currently, the company has over 30 projects in active development across most genres, formats, and budget ranges, from a Broadway play, to sub-$10 million independent features, to tentpole studio films.
Previously, Nunnari has exec produced the forthcoming Peacock series Those About to Die starring Anthony Hopkins, as well as David Fincher’s Se7en, and Martin Scorsese’s Silence, Shutter Island and The Departed. Additionally, he produced the 300 films and the Robert Rodriguez classic From Dusk Till Dawn.
Recently producing Chiwetel Ejiofor’s sophomore feature Rob Peace, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Horsman’s past credits include Some Kind of Heaven, Shirley, Juliet, Naked and Basmati Blues, to name just a few.
