News & Reviews

WORD: Andrea Portes novel ‘Hick’ set to become feature film
Press Release

Unbridled Books is pleased to announce that the film rights for Andrea Portes' debut novel, "Hick," have been sold to producers Christian Taylor of Taylor Lane Productions and Steven Siebert of Lighthouse Entertainment. Hick, which Unbridled Books released in May 2007, was a Los Angeles Times paperback bestseller, a Book Sense Pick, a Book Sense Reading Group Pick, and a Midwest Connections Pick. It earned rave reviews nationwide.

"Hick" is the story of Luli McMullen -- feisty, precocious, and out on her own at 13. Luli is running away from Nebraska to Las Vegas, where she plans to escape her disturbing present and even less hopeful future by finding herself a sugar daddy. That Luli finds trouble on the road almost immediately is no surprise. But on her perilous journey west, she learns the truth of American rootlessness and discovers both the power and the peril of her own sexual curiosity.

Raw and edgy, hilarious, hopeful and heartbreaking, the novel is at once a true-to-life portrait of an inviolable spirit threatened by drugs and alcohol, sex and crime, and a stubbornly idealistic novel about growing up in America.

Taylor said of the acquisition, "I was immediately struck by the unique voice Andrea had created in 13- year-old Luli. Films like Badlands, Paper Moon and Taxi Driver had left strong impressions on me during my own adolescence, and I was excited by the idea of bringing this kind of character to life on the big screen."

Luli's story is loosely based on Andrea Portes' own childhood. She grew up outside Lincoln, Nebraska, later shuffling between Illinois, Texas, Brazil, North Dakota, and North Carolina before attending Bryn Mawr College. She received her MFA in Theater from UC San Diego and became a script reader for Paramount Pictures. She lives in Los Angeles.

Portes (pictured above) is in negotiations with the producers to adapt the screenplay.

Unbridled Books is the independent press founded by Fred Ramey and Greg Michalson. For complete event information, a podcast with the author, and a downloadable reading group guide, please visit our website.

Learn more about Andrea Portes at her Myspace.

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