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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