Harvey Weinstein broke the news from Cannes this past weekend: The Weinstein Company purchased the rights to The Alchemist, an international best-seller by author Paulo Coehlo. Laurence Fishburne will direct and star as the Alchemist.
The book was published first in Brazil in 1988, has been translated into 56 languages and has since sold 65 MILLION copies worldwide in over 150 countries. It has such staying power, that it has been on the New York Times best-seller list for 34 weeks, and is currently sitting at #6.
I read the book last year, having never heard of it before, and fell in love with the story about never giving up on your dreams, or your “Personal Legend.”
From Weinsten, thanks to Rotten Tomatoes:
“Personally producing a project is rare for me, but bringing The Alchemist to the screen has been my dream,” he said. “It is a spiritual and moving story and I am thrilled to be working side by side with Laurence. The pieces are now in place to jumpstart this project and we are eager to get going.”
The book is about a young shepherd boy named Santiago who decided to leave his flocks in order to find his dreams.
According to Fishburne, there is going to be great care taken in bringing this book to the movies. I would hope so, because with the number of fans of the book out there, you have no choice but to do it justice:
“This is a special project that now has a special team behind it to ensure that its path to the big screen is handled with the proper care it deserves. I am looking forward to directing it, acting in it and collaborating with Harvey Weinstein to produce a beautiful film that will do justice to Paulo’s enormously successful novel.”
I’m pretty excited to see what will happen with this film, mainly the actor they pick to play the young boy.
The book is a pretty short read and for anyone interested in checking it out, go grab it at Amazon.
Great, another book to add to my list. I’m not putting it above The Road.
I can only read so fast!