The option for Film/TV rights for Vampire Apocalypse – A World Torn Asunder by Irish horror writer Derek Gunn has been purchased by producer/screenwriter Richard Finney.  Derek’s debut novel is published by KHP Industries under their Black Death Books imprint.  Vampire Apocalypse was released in September 2006 and has reached both Barnes and Noble’s and Amazon’s top 100 horror novels lists. The book has also been nominated in the Preditors and Editors Annual Readers Poll for 2006.

DEREK GUNN (www.derekgunn.com) lives in Dublin, Ireland and has been writing horror fiction for the past six years.

Mr. Gunn, as a horror writer, has focused mainly on writing novels rather than short stories.  He has written three novels since Vampire Apocalypse: "Holmes's Destiny", "The Estuary", “Pirates” and is currently working on his fifth novel, a sequel to Vampire Apocalypse. Mr. Gunn has had short stories published in The Undead Horror Anthology, The Blackest Death Vol.2 and Chimeraworld #2.   Vampire Apocalypse is available world wide mainly through on-line booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Boarders and horror fiction specialists Shocklines.  The book is also available directly from the publisher’s on-line book store (www.khpindustries.com/vampireapocalypse1.html).

Mr. Gunn is represented by Sheil Land Associates Ltd., 52 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LS, UK ehayward@sheilland.co.uk

RICHARD FINNEY is an LA-based Producer-Screenwriter who has worked with such filmmakers as Steven Spielberg, Mel Gibson, and George Clooney.

His most recent production was Carver, an independent horror movie currently in post production. Mr. Finney produced the film with John Thompson and Luke Vitale. Under the Finney/Thompson production banner, Mr. Finney also executive produced the horror film The 8th Plague, recently released by Anthem Entertainment.

The Book Vampire Apocalypse – A World Torn Asunder was brought to producer Finney by screenwriter Dean Loftis who has collaborated with Finney on several genre scripts including the thriller “The Need” (based on the book by Andrew Neiderman, author of The Devil’s Advocate) and “The Wind Raider” an epic SF/Fantasy project. Both projects are slated to be produced in the coming year. Finney is also in negotiations with a Canadian studio to produce another Finney/Loftis collaboration, YM, as a fall TV series.

Mr. Finney’s producing credits include 100 Girls, a Lion’s Gate release, starring Jonathan Tucker (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) Katherine Heigel (Grey’s Anatomy), and Jaime Pressley (My Name is Earl). 100 Girls won the Best Picture award at the Variety Video Premiere Awards; And the romantic comedy According to Spencer starring Jessie Bradford (Flags of Our Father) and Mia Kirshner (The L word) also distributed by Lion’s Gate.

Finney’s career as a screenwriter first began at Walt Disney Pictures working on the project that became the film Robert Heinlein’s The Puppet Masters. He quickly followed that assignment up with pitch sales to Touchstone, Cinema Line and Mel Gibson’s Icon Productions. His biggest pitch sale was the project Alien Zoo which he sold to Steven Spielberg for his company Dreamworks Entertainment.  Also as a screenwriter, Finney has teamed with Daniel Petrie Jr. (Beverly Hills Cop) on the production rewrite for the Columbia Pictures release Maximum Risk, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Source: Finney/Gunn, January 2007       

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