Yahoo Lifestyle Black Label Media Options Patrick Hoffman’s ‘The White Van’; Grant Singer To Direct
EXCLUSIVE: Black Label Media has taken rights to Patrick Hoffman’s debut crime novel The White Van to develop as a feature for filmmaker Grant Singer.
Singer and author Hoffman will team to adapt the novel together.
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The project reunites Singer with Black Label Media on the heels of Reptile, his chart-topping Netflix feature debut starring Benicio Del Toro, which the company also produced. That movie premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.
The White Van is a kinetic heist thriller following a troubled young woman who is lured into a criminal scheme that leaves her wanted for bank robbery and hunted by a corrupt cop who doesn’t want justice – but wants the money for himself. Evoking crime novelists like Dennis Lehane and gritty seventies films like Dog Day Afternoon, the line between good and evil blurs as criminals, cops, and hustlers collide in the unforgiving underbelly of San Francisco.
Black Label Media’s Molly Smith, Rachel Smith, Thad Luckinbill and Trent Luckinbill will produce alongside Chris Goldberg at Winterlight Pictures, who brought the project to Singer and Black Label Media, with Black Label also financing. Seth Spector will executive produce.
Prior to Reptile, Singer’s directing career in the music video world counted works with The Weeknd, Lorde, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Skrillex, Sam Smith, Future, Slowdive, and Troye Sivan, among others. He’s also helmed commercials for Apple and Nike, short films, and concert performance direction for live broadcast.
Hoffman is a Brooklyn-based writer and private investigator who has written four literary thrillers. The White Van, his first novel, was a finalist for the Crime Writers’ Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and his books have been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed, and San Francisco Chronicle Best Books of the Year. His latest book, Friends Helping Friends, will hit store shelves this month.
Goldberg developed Hoffman’s previous novel Every Man a Menace as an executive at Studio 8 with screenwriter Steve Kloves and director Yann Demange. Winterlight Pictures, an IP-driven independent production company founded by Goldberg, is producing The Maid, based on the #1 NYT Bestselling phenomenon written by Nita Prose, as well as 20+ other projects with partners such as Plan B, 87North, 87Eleven, HartBeat, Toby Emmerich’s Fireside and many others.
Formed in 2013 by partners Molly Smith, Trent Luckinbill and Thad Luckinbill, Black Label Media’s mandate is to finance and produce bold films with commercial appeal. Coming off of Reptile, the company’s other credits include the Sicario films, La La Land, I Wanna Dance with Somebody, and Only the Brave, to name just a few. Upcoming projects include the J.D. Dillard-directed adaptation of Nathan Ballingrud’s acclaimed sci-fi thriller novel, The Strange, written by Aisha Porter-Christie as well as the highly anticipated Lynne Ramsay film, Die, My Love, starring Jennifer Lawrence, LaKeith Stanfield, and Robert Pattison, which the company produces alongside Lawrence’s Excellent Cadaver.
Singer is repped by CAA, LBI, and Steve Burkow at Ziffren Brittenham LLP. Patrick Hoffman is repped by CAA and David Schacter at Levine Plotkin. Chris Goldberg is repped by Scott Edel at Loeb and CAA.
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