Brazilian Novelist Strikes Hollywood Gold Once Again

Veteran Italian producer Gianni Nunnari and his Hollywood Gang Prods. have optioned worldwide motion picture rights to "Eleven Minutes," the international best seller from Brazilian author Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist).

Several other Coelho titles also are being adapted for the big screen. Capistrano Films has just acquired his biblically themed novel "The Fifth Mountain." In addition, Warner Bros. Pictures picked up The Alchemist in 2003 for Laurence Fishburne to write, direct and star in.

"Eleven Minutes" revolves around a young girl from a Brazilian village who comes to the conclusion that it's impossible to own anybody except possibly by touching their soul during a sexual encounter--the average duration of which is 11 minutes.

"Paulo Coelho is one of the world's most innovative and influential contemporary authors," said Nunnari, who will produce the project. "'Eleven Minutes,' with its worldwide familiarity, universal themes of sex and love and its odyssey of self-discovery, should naturally translate into the immersive medium of motion pictures."

Nathalie Peter-Contesse, vp creative affairs at Hollywood Gang, will serve as the creative executive overseeing the project, which Craig J. Flores, vp business and legal affairs, will executive produce.

Formed in 1997 by Nunnari, Hollywood Gang Prods. is fast-tracking several projects for production late this year and early next year. They include "Il Sorpasso," based on Fernanda Young's Brazilian novel, A Sombra das Vossas Asas. Cecchi Gori Pictures will co-produce the feature.

Coelho, whose others works include The Pilgrimage, By the River Piedra and Veronica Decides to Die, is represented by the Sant Jordi Asociados Literary Agency.