So well-known literary liar James Frey (of A Million Little Pieces infamy) hooks up with a new writer and creates a young adult series of SF books. However, instead of pulling his own weight, Frey gets the new writer, Jobie Hughes, to actually do most of the writing for the series, the first of which is titled I Am Number Four. The premise: A group of alien teenagers "hide on earth after their planet is attacked by hostile invaders." Wow. Original.
Naturally the large publishing houses which aided and abetted Frey's previous lies scoop up the new series, and immediately sell it to Hollywood. Michael Bay, the director of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, is signed on to produce and possibly direct the first installment. For those of you who aren't sure of the talent swirling around all this, here's Nick Mamatas' recent review of the new Bay film.
Think this is all a joke? Here's the NY Times article.
Perhaps Jobie Hughes is a great writer and storyteller, in which case I wish him the best with the series. But from where I sit, this deal stinks worse than most of Michael Bay's films.
