Hugh HoweyBy now, the success of indie author Hugh Howey has been widely publicized, including here on TeleRead. Howey wrote Wool, a book split into five novellas set in a dystopian future.

Read Joanna Cabot’s review of the Wool Omnibus here.

Howey recently did a radio interview with Orla Barry of The Green Room on Newstalk, during which he discussed his deal with movie director Ridley Scott (Prometheus, Black Hawk Down), who bought the movie rights to the book. Howey also discusses the rise in popularity of Wool.

Howey didn’t expect Wool to take off the way it did, gaining steam without much marketing on his end.

“It’s bizarre,” Howey told Barry. “If I knew the secret, I would have all my books do this, but they haven’t. I think it helped that this wasn’t my first story. I had seven or eight novels out there and they had a small audience … I had a presence. But the hundreds of readers I had a month turned into thousands a month, and it was this story that exploded.”

Hugh Howey
Ridley Scott

The deal with Ridley Scott came through Howey’s agent, whose film co-agent who material around Hollywood. According to Howey, this particular film agent put together the Twilight films and the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The project fell into the hands of Steven Zaillian, a screenwriter who worked with Ridley Scott on Hannibal and American Gangster. Zaillian also wrote the screenplays for Schindler’s ListAwakenings, and Moneyball, among scores of other well-known films.

“He said [Wool] reminded him of Blade Runner and Alien, those character-driven dramas that made Ridley famous,” Howey said, during the interview. “(Scott) was reading it, and we were getting updates as he was going through it. He was loving it, and I couldn’t believe it when the offer came through.”

Howey was flown out to Los Angeles to work on the deal, but he hasn’t gotten a chance yet to meet Scott.

To listen to the interview, click here.

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