MIRAMAX, RUDIN PREPARE TO LIVE PRICE'S 'LUSH LIFE' (VAR)

By Nancy Tartaglione-Vialatte

Miramax Films and producer Scott Rudin have acquired screen rights to Richard Price's novel "Lush Life." Price, who recently won the Edgar Award for his script work on HBO series "The Wire," will handle scripting duties on the adaptation, says Variety.

The deal for the just-published book is for mid-six against seven figures.

"Lush Life" is set up as a police procedural in which a restaurant manager and his bartender set out to walk a drunken friend home on NY�s Lower East Side. One of the men is shot, and a murder investigation reveals much about the city and the characters involved in a mugging gone wrong.

CAA brokered the deal.

Price, whose novels include "Clockers," "The Wanderers," "Freedomland" and "Blood Brothers," is drawing the best reviews of his career with �Lush Life.�

Rudin, who shared the best picture Oscar with Joel and Ethan Coen for "No Country for Old Men," has a long history with Price that began before Rudin became a producer. At 19, Rudin was the casting director on the Phil Kaufman-directed adaptation of Price's first novel, "The Wanderers," notes Variety.

Price went on to write the Rudin-produced pics "Ransom" and "Shaft." His other script-work includes �The Color of Money,� �Sea of Love,� �Mad Dog and Glory,� and adaptations of his novels.

The major book buy is the third this year for Rudin: Columbia Pictures acquired Michael Chabon's "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" for Rudin and the Coens, and Miramax acquired the upcoming Joshua Ferris novel "The Unnamed," an adaptation of which Rudin will produce.