Warner Bros. co-heads win screen rights to T.J. Newman's 'Drowning: The Rescue Of Flight 1421'. More details

Warner Bros. production co-heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy have won the screen rights to T.J. Newman's upcoming novel "Drowning: The Rescue Of Flight 1421" in an extremely competitive book rights auction.

According to sources, the studio paid $1.5 million against a $3 million deal, and there were five bids in the seven-figure range. This is Newman's second thriller novel set in the aviation world; her debut novel Falling, which she wrote while working as a flight attendant, was also a huge success, selling for three 7-figure deals, including a $1.5 million movie deal with Universal and Working Title. Falling became Simon & Schuster's fastest-selling fiction debut since 2004, and it was also sold in over 30 foreign countries.

In T.J. Newman's upcoming novel Drowning, a plane crashes into the Pacific Ocean shortly after takeoff, leaving a dozen survivors trapped in a flooded, sealed section of the aircraft. Among them are an engineer and his 11-year-old daughter, as well as his estranged wife, who happens to be part of the rescue team tasked with saving the passengers before their air runs out.




The story quickly caught the attention of Hollywood, with several high-profile names expressing interest in adapting the book for the big screen, including Steven Spielberg, Alfonso Cuaron, Nicole Kidman, and others. After a heated bidding war, Warner Bros. emerged as the winner, with the film set to be produced by Shane Salerno and The Story Factory.

Newman, who previously worked as a flight attendant and wrote the novel during downtime on flights, will serve as an executive producer on the project. With strong roles for both the rescuer/mom and the engineer/father, Warner Bros. is hoping Drowning will be a hit on a global theatrical level, reminiscent of the kind of films made by the late director Wolfgang Petersen.

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