DreamWorks Studios has closed a preemptive deal to acquire the film rights to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin’s upcoming book “The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism,” the company announced Wednesday.
Goodwin previously collaborated with DreamWorks on Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln,” which was based in part on her bestselling book “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.”
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Goodwin’s “The Bully Pulpit” will be released Nov. 5, 2013 by Simon & Schuster. The book, seven years in the making, tells the riveting story of two longtime friends who become bitter political opponents. Roosevelt’s fighting spirit and impulsive temperament stood in counterpoint to Taft’s deliberative, conciliatory disposition. Yet, their opposing qualities proved complementary, allowing them to create a rare camaraderie and productive collaboration until their brutal fight for the presidential nomination in 1912 divided them, their families, their colleagues, and their friends. It split the Republican Party in two and altered the course of American history.
“Doris has once again given us the best seats in the house where we can watch two dynamic American personalities in a battle for power and friendship,” said Spielberg.
“Working with Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks on ‘Lincoln’ seemed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Doris Kearns Goodwin. “I cannot imagine anything better than the prospect of working with them again, this time to bring Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft to life.”
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Goodwin, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in history for “No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II,” is also the author of the bestsellers “Wait Till Next Year,” “Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream” and “The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys,” which was adapted into an award-winning five-part TV miniseries.
Goodwin was represented in the deal by ICM.