Tuesday, January 9, 2001

DOLLARS & SCENTS of Perfume Novel 'Perfume' smells like money to film biz By MICHAEL FLEMING - Variety

In one of the largest book rights auctions in years, the 1981 German novel "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" has bids as high as $6 million on the table, with a sale near to Bernd Eichinger's Constantin Film at a price in the range of $5 million against $10 million. It's exactly the kind of out-of-left-field sale needed to energize the sluggish book-to-movies marketplace. A-list filmmakers have wanted to turn Patrick Suskind's story of an 18th-century serial killer perfume maker into a big-screen feature for two decades, but Suskind (who once wanted Stanley Kubrick to do it) hasn't been willing to make a deal until now. Constantin has been battling for the title against formidable competition. One bidder has been the "Gangs of New York" group of IEG, AMG and Miramax, who want it for a vehicle for Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio. Bill Mechanic's Pandemonium has been vying to make it with director Tim Burton and "Criminal Conversations" scribe Hanna Weg, in a package assembled by Alchemy Ent. partners Andy Tennant, Jon Jashni and Wink Mordaunt. Ridley Scott and scribe Steve Zaillian also chased the material. "Perfume" is being sold by Switzerland-based Gesine Lubben, who handles subsidiary rights for German publisher Diogenes. She declined to comment as did Constantin, which might well tap some of the rival talent should it prevail and complete the sale. Neither the seller nor the producer would comment on the negotiations. From Amazon.com: Perfume : The Story of a Murderer (Vintage International) by Patrick Suskind In leisurely, aristocratic measures soaked with irony, PERFUME unfolds the gruesome, picaresque allegory of an olfactory genius-monster--a murderous perfumer of decadent eighteenth-century France. Sean Barrett gives a masterfully effete reading, with flawless articulations of character and wicked, understated nuances. He wisely plays the humor not at all, instead accentuating a kind of connoisseur's study of the Grand Guignol. Eschewing overtly Gallic inflections, he puts pre-Revolutionary France in his voice merely through lightness of touch. A feast for lovers of voluptuous language, sly wit and epicurean mayhem. Y.R. Winner of AUDIOFILE's Earphones Award. An international sensation from the moment of its publication in Germany last year, this is one of the most extraordinary novels published in years: the story of a monster loose in 18th-century France and his quest for the perfect perfume.

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