Here is what I said to Paul when I got him on the horn a bit ago to discuss this bit of amazing news: “Tell me there is another Paul Kix walking this planet, and it’s that other Paul Kix whose book proposal was optioned by DreamWorks.” Paul just laughed. It was the confident, hearty laugh of a man whose book proposal — not even a book, just a proposal — has been optioned by DreamWorks. With Cary Fukunaga attached to direct. Here’s how The Hollywood Reporter describes the subject of Paul’s nonfiction book, Noble Assassin:
Based on the true story of a French aristocrat turned anti-Nazi saboteur named Robert de la Rochefoucauld, who is described as being James Bond before there was a James Bond. … De la Rochefoucauld grew up in privilege in France, but when the Nazis invaded and imprisoned his father, he fled and joined the British Special Operations Executive. He was trained to crack safes and to kill and was sent back to France where he helped organize the resistance. He blew up train stations and munitions factories, was tortured for months when caught and twice escaped execution.
Paul got the idea for the book when he read De la Rochefoucauld’s obit in the New York Times. He came to learn that De la Rochefoucauld had written a 150-page memoir. So he called the French publisher and bought a copy for $200. Of course, the book was written in French. Paul don’t parler Français. Know what he did? Typed the entire book into Google Translate.
That’s our Paul! Go the brute force route. Why hire a French student to read the book into a recorder and then listen to your own private book on tape? Too easy!
Anyhow, Paul’s not quitting his day job at ESPN The Magazine. But it looks like he’ll be working remotely in the not too distant future, as he heads overseas to conduct research. Tall Paul does Paris. Get him a dwarf and you’ve got your next season of An Idiot Abroad. I’d watch that.
I kid because I love. Congrats to Paul and his family. Seriously couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
