Haute Living Los Angeles Update: Steven Spielberg

Our Haute 100 list details the accomplishments of the most influential people in each of our markets—Miami, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. These people continue to make moves, so rather than waiting for the next Haute 100 issue to come out, we thought we’d provide you with regular updates on those Haute 100 members who are making headlines. Check back daily for more info on the most powerful people in your city. Steven Spielberg is helping James Frey turn the page with a DreamWorks film adaptation of “I Am Number Four.”

Steven Spielberg

Category: Billionaires

Industry: Film

Company: DreamWorks

What Made Him Haute: Arguably the world’s most famous filmmaker, Spielberg currently has more than 30 projects underway, including Indiana Jones 5, War Horse, and an untitled Martin Luther King Jr. project.

What Makes Him Haute Now: Although James Frey has amassed much criticism within the media and literary worlds, being denounced by Oprah and shunned by many book circles, it’s not time to close the books on him anytime soon. Steven Spielberg, Stacey Snider and Michael Bay are reading between the lines and turning a sci-fi novel from Frey’s “Full Fathom Five,” his new book series, film and television venture into a DreamWorks film.

Spielberg and Snider read the book and acquired the film rights to “I Am Number Four” soon after. The film, which will be produced by Bay, will star Alex Pettyfer, Dianna Argon and Timothy Olyphant. Opening in theaters in February 2011, this will be DreamWorks Studios’ first release since becoming independent from Paramount Pictures.

As the Wall Street Journal and New York Magazine report, Frey is taking a page from the Harry Potter series, as well as “Twilight” and “Gossip Girl,” with Full Fathom Five, employing M.F.A. students or graduates from schools including Columbia University and Princeton University, magazine editors from coast-to-coast and established novelists to develop fiction books, which he then markets to film studios, television production companies and publishing companies.

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