The high-stakes auction for film rights to David Grann‘s “Killers of the Flower Moon” has ended. The nonfictionbook, not yet published, sold to Santa Monica-based Imperative Entertainment for roughly $5 million, an individual familiar with the deal told TheWrap.
The company bested multiple bidders for the material, including Netflix, Paramount and Sony.
Paramount’s offer included Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” director J.J. Abrams and Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth (“Forrest Gump”), while Sony’s had George Clooney attached to direct and Amy Pascal to produce.
Set in the 1920s, “Killers of the Flower Moon” is a nonfiction story about the mysterious murders of the Osage Indians tribe in Oklahoma, where oil sat rich beneath their land, that helped lead to the founding of the FBI.
The case was turned over to a brand new law enforcement agency known as the FBI, which fought against corruption to solve the case.
David Grann‘s 2009 best-seller “The Lost City of Z” has been adapted into an upcoming Paramount release by director James Gray and starring Charlie Hunnam, Tom Holland, Sienna Miller and Robert Pattinson.
Imperative Entertainment — founded by Tim Kring, Bradley Thomas and Dan Friedkin — develops projects for film, TV and digital. One of its first projects was NBC’s “Heroes Reborn.”
CAA brokered the auction, which heated into a major bidding war.