Jimmy Frey, Our Former Intern Boy, Makes It Big in Hollywood
Hey, look! Being a Gawker Intern pays off. One of our most famous non-paid workers, James Frey, is shopping a young adult series that just got preemptively optioned by DreamWorks. Estimates say the deal was in the high six figures.
The first installment in the six-book series is called I Am Number Four, and it was being shopped around with pseudonyms but now everyone has found out who was behind it. Oprah's worst enemy, James Frey (if that is his real name!).
The Times gives the following synopsis:
The story is about a group of nine children from a planet called Lorien who have been attacked by a hostile race from another planet. The nine children and their guardians evacuate to earth, where three are killed. The protagonist, a Lorien boy named John Smith, hides in Paradise, Ohio, as a human and tries to evade his predators.
Reached in Paris, Frey risked his promotion to Gawker special correspondent by playing coy with us: "I can neither confirm nor deny that I had anything to do with that book."
Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg are involved in the movie optioning, and the old Bay boy might even direct! So good for Mr. Frey. From career embarrassment with A Million Little Pieces, to hard-working beer-fetching Gawker HQ lackey, to snappy teen sci-fi writer with a movie deal.
See why you should let us work you to death and never pay you? Eventually, Steven Spielberg will make sure you get yours. Meanwhile, we're still here... Hm.