Jeffrey Archer novels to get Hollywood treatment as former Tory peer signs film deal

Jeffrey Archer’s bestselling novels are to be adapted for the screen after the former Tory peer sold the film and television rights to 10 of his books.

Photo: DAVID ROSE

By Matthew Moore

Hollywood studios are already in negotiations to produce big screen versions some of Lord Archer’s most popular works including A Matter of Honour, As the Crow Flies and Honour Among Thieves, according to reports.

Jeffrey Steiner, the Canadian businessman who has bought the rights, claims that the adaptations could rival the success of the Jason Bourne films, which were based on novels by Robert Ludlum.

Lord Archer has sold more than 250 million copies of his novels and short stories around the world, despite the ignominious end to his political career. He was expelled from the Tory party and served two years in prison after being found guilty of perjury in 2001.

Mr Steiner, a leading figure in Toronto Conservative circles, said that Lord Archer’s colourful past added to the appeal of his thrillers.

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Archer novels head for TV

by Sean Davidson
17 Sep 2010

Controversial British author and former jailbird Jeffrey Archer has sold the film, TV and interactive rights to 10 of his bestsellers to a Canadian company to adapt for the big and small screen.

Toronto-based production start-up New Franchise Media plans to adapt the former MP and currently Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare’s thrillers, including 2006’s False Impression and the recent re-do of his 1980 work Kane & Abel.

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Jeffrey Archer novels to be made for film, TV

Steiner acquires worldwide rights to thriller series

By Etan Vlessing
Sept 16, 2010, 12:54 PM ET

TORONTO — Millionaire British novelist Jeffrey Archer is to see a slate of his best-selling novels turned into movie and TV projects by a Toronto private equity player.

Jeffrey Steiner, the former Toronto bureaucrat behind Pinewood Toronto Studios, has acquired the worldwide film, TV and digital rights to the thriller novels by Archer, with an eye to striking international co-productions to bring them to the screen.

Steiner, a one-time head of the Toronto Economic Development Corp., which stick-handled the development of a major Toronto film studio on the city’s waterfront, last year launched New Franchise Media.

And he was on hand at the Toronto International Film Festival to unveil a deal to option and turn up to ten of Archer’s best-selling novels into movie or TV projects.

“We look forward to developing these exceptional literary properties across film and television to excite Jeffrey Archer’s enormous worldwide fan base and new audiences alike resulting in productions with that must-see factor,” Steiner, president and CEO of New Franchise Media explained.

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New Franchise pacts with Jeffrey Archer

Deal covers film, TV and digital rights for 10 titles

By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK, DIANA LODDERHOSE

TORONTO– Bestselling British author and controversial politico Jeffrey Archer will team up with Toronto-based New Franchise Media in a slate deal for worldwide film, TV and digital rights for 10 of Archer’s action and drama titles.
New Franchise, an intellectual property rights company backed by private financiers, will work with producers, indie companies and studios, both in the U.S. and abroad, to develop the books into feature films, TV movies and miniseries.

Led by Jeffrey Steiner, New Franchise was formed expressly to secure and develope the rights to Archer’s works. Titles include action crime-caper “False Impression” and a spy-thriller trilogy based on “A Matter of Honour,” “Honour Among Thieves” and “The Eleventh Commandment.”

“The stories of Jeffrey Archer are hugely popular in both domestic and international markets,” New Franchise exec VP Mark Romoff said.

Many of Archer’s tomes have been bestsellers, beginning with “Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less” in 1976.

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