http://www.deadline.com/2013/06/denzel-washington-eyes-killer-role-in-warner-bros-shovel-ready/

Denzel Washington Eyes Killer Role In Warner Bros ‘Shovel Ready’

By MIKE FLEMING JR Thursday June 6, 2013 @ 12:26pm PDT

EXCLUSIVE: Denzel Washington is in early talks to star inShovel Ready, a Warner Bros adaptation of a debut novel by journalist Adam Sternbergh. Erwin Stoff is the producer. In a bombed-out, near future New York City where most of the population escapes reality by tapping into a digital fantasy world, a contract killer is hired to kill the daughter of a powerful, maniacal evangelist. Ultimately, the killer becomes the girl’s protector. It’s early days, but this evokes memories of Washington vehicles likeMan On Fire,Book Of Eli, and the Antoine Fuqua-directedThe Equalizerwhich Washington is about to shoot for Sony Pictures. Which means I will be there on opening day ifShovel Readyhappens. Washington is repped by WME. CAA brokered the book deal. 

“Compulsive!  Savage future noir that crackles with deadpan wit." —Nick Harkaway, author ofThe Gone-Away WorldandAngelmaker/upload/201308/19/201308190111296991.jpg

An absolute attack  of a debut— SHOVEL READY is an addictive thriller that calls to mind the masters of our most beloved genres: the dark sci-fi of Philip K. Dick; the hard-boiled rhythms of James Ellroy; the fearless bravado of Chuck Palahniuk; and the classic noir of James M. Cain.

I’m so pleased to send you this mind-bending thriller that Crown is publishing in January 2014.  Acquired in an exclusive pre-empt last summer, with the film rights snatched up by Warner Brothers overnight, we’re confident that SHOVEL READY will introduce Adam Sternbergh as the most exciting thriller writer to come along in years.

Spademan was a garbage man.  That was before the dirty bomb hit Times Square, before his wife was killed, and before the majority of the population escaped their ravaged world by “tapping into” a sophisticated virtual reality, spending months at a time in a blissful dream.  Now he's a hit man—for the right price, he’ll track anyone down and take them out.  He’s the bullet, just point him in the right direction.  He doesn't ask questions, he works quickly, and he's handy with a box cutter.  His latest target is the daughter of a powerful evangelist.  Finding her is easy, but the job quickly gets complicated: his mark has a shocking secret and his client has an agenda far beyond a simple kill.  It’s up to Spademan to navigate the dual levels of his world—the gritty reality and the slick fantasy—so he can finish the job, keep his conscience clean, and stay alive.   

It’s a propulsive read—at once thoroughly addicting and masterfully constructed.  Sternbergh writes in the style of classic noir and peppers his world with vivid details of this futuristic dystopia.  It’s far different than what you might have read last summer.  The editor and author did a heavy lift on it, making it more substantial—it’s now 50,000 words—and ironing out some of the thornier plot issues.  I promise that the finished product is as gleaming and dangerous and piercing as Spademan’s box cutter.

 Rights have been sold to: Heyne (Germany), Hayakawa (Japan),Piemme (Italy) and Luitingh (Holland).