HBO buys Josh Bazell's 'Beat the Reaper'
According to Deadline, HBO has bought Beat the Reaper, the 2009 debut novel from physician Josh Bazell, with plans to turn it into a series. It'll be executive produced by Leonardo DiCarpio. Writing, executive producing and attached to direct are David Levien and Brian Koppelman, from Ocean's Thirteen. Koppelman, incidently, wrote the forward to Lawrence Block's The Night and The Music (and we still have some signed copies left in The Mysterious Bookshop).
Beat the Reaper is criminal/medical thriller about Dr. Peter Brown, aka Pietro "Bearclaw" Brnwna, a former hitman whose dark past is revealed when an old colleague recognizes him at the hospital where he works. It's a fantastic first novel, and leaves us very excited for Wild Thing, Bazell's next novel featuring Brnwna, hitting in February.
HBO does great, edgy television (look no further than Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones), and given the brutal nature of Beat the Reaper (oh that ending...), this seems like a perfect home for this project.
