‘The Seventh Function of Language’ Being Adapted as Feature Film (Variety)

“The Seventh Function of Language,” a novel by French author Laurent Binet, is getting the feature film treatment. Uri Singer, the CEO of TaleFlick, a production company that specializes in adapting books into movies and TV shows, has obtained screen rights to the popular work of fiction.

Singer will produce “The Seventh Function of Language” with Midnight Road Entertainment’s Vincent Sieber, who previously produced “The Chronicles of Narnia.”

The New York Times described Binet’s novel as being “at once a buddy-cop plot, a fish-out-of-water comedy and a spy thriller.” A whodunit set against the backdrop of 1980s France,  “The Seventh Function of Language” centers on a literary critic Roland Barthes, who gets hit by a laundry van and dies after having lunch with the presidential candidate François Mitterand. But as the world mourns his death, one question arises: What if it wasn’t an accident at all?

Binet’s first novel, titled “HHhH,” was the basis for the film “The Man With the Iron Heart,” which was released in 2017. It focused on Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich during WWII, and starred Jason Clarke and Rosamund Pike. His latest novel, “Civilizations,” is being developed as a TV series with Anonymous Content.

Singer, an entertainment industry veteran, is currently producing Noah Baumbach’s adaptation of the Don Delillo novel “White Noise.”

Singer and Sieber are also producing Universal Picture’s upcoming feature film “Rich,” starring Matt Damon. The movie, based on “The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich,” is also being produced by Sunday Night Production’s John Krasinski and Allyson Seeger. Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse penned the script.

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The Seventh Function on Language is in development already, and details of the process will be seen in upcoming news. Until then, you can submit your own story - a novel, screenplay, graphic novel, short story or article - to be evaluated for adaptation. Click here.