"McMafia" Nabs Movie Deal

"McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld," Mischa Glenny's sprawling book about organized crime around the world, has landed a movie deal.

London- and Los Angeles-based production company Working Title Films has acquired rights to the book.

Glenny, an expert on global affairs, focuses on the network of mob criminals in places as diverse as Mumbai, Johannesburg and Eastern Europe. These players, he writes, operate illegal businesses ranging from drug smuggling to human trafficking, in operations that account for roughly one-fifth of the world's economy.

With its globalist themes, the book is said to be something of an underworld equivalent of Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century.

Nonfiction fare that lacks a central character or story line typically has been considered difficult to adapt to the screen. Nonetheless, such tomes as Michael Lewis' baseball study Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game and Malcolm Gladwell's decision-making exploration Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking are in development at major studios and production banners.

Thanks to Steven Zeitchik