Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben to co-write novel
Reese Witherspoon is not content with just running one of the most popular book clubs in the world, she also wants to be an author.
The actor and producer has announced on social media she will co-write a book with popular novelist Harlan Coben, with the release date set for this time next year.
She wrote on Instagram, “As a massive fan of Harlan’s work, I can’t believe he agreed to co-author a novel with me. I’m either the most persuasive person alive or the idea of this book is just too good. Maybe both?
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“I honestly can’t wait for you all to read it.”
The story is being kept secret but the idea for it is said to have come from Witherspoon. It will be published by Penguin Random House.
Witherspoon started Reese’s Book Club in 2017, which recommends one title a month.
Several of her picks have been propelled to massive sales, including Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams and Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang.
An astute businesswoman, Witherspoon then leverages the popularity conferred upon her book club picks and adapts some of those titles into TV and film projects through the production arm of her media company, Hello Sunshine.
She co-starred in a streaming version of Little Fires Everywhere alongside Kerry Washington and Joshua Jackson. Other adaptations have included Where the Crawdads Sing, Daisy Jones & the Six, The Thing He Told Me, From Scratch and Tiny Beautiful Things.
In 2021, Witherspoon sold a portion of Hello Sunshine to the Blackstone-backed private equity group Candle Media for $US900 million.
Hello Sunshine has also been involved in the productions of Gone Girl, Wild, Big Little Lies and Morning Wars.
Coben is an American writer of primarily mysteries and thrillers and has sold over 75 million copies. He has published almost 40 tomes, several of which has been adapted into screen projects.
Coben’s name has enough cache that the adaptations sometimes carry his name in the title, for example, Harlan Coben’s Shelter, a series on Prime Video starring Jaden Michael and Constance Zimmer.
The demand for Coben adaptations is a relatively recent phenomenon. While he has been publishing books since 1990, the first English-language screen version didn’t come until 2018 with Safe, a suburban thriller about a missing 16-year-old girl, starring Michael C. Hall and Amanda Abbington.
That same year, he signed a five-year deal with Netflix which committed to adapting 14 of his novels excluding the Myron Bolitar series, which Prime’s Shelter, featuring the character of Mickey Bolitar, is drawn from.
Netflix then re-upped the deal in 2022 for another four years, this time, securing the rights to the Bolitar books.
Since then, there have been a further eight series including The Stranger with Richard Armitage and Fool Me Once with Michelle Keegan, some of which he has produced and written for the screen.
While Witherspoon and Coben have not confirmed a screen adaptation of their upcoming collaboration, given their individual histories in turning best-selling books into TV shows and movies, surely it’s inevitable.
