Mobile game publisher Glu Mobile has partnered with controversial author James Frey (A Million Little Pieces) to develop cross-media IP that includes action-adventure novels being translated into mobile games, the company said.
The partnership -- which is with Frey's young adult novel company, Full Fathom Five -- calls for a minimum of four original story ideas to be developed during the initial two-year term of its contract. According to the company, the partnership will result in "transmedia content that fans can enjoy as both social mobile games and as novels."
"Glu and James Frey have a shared vision for the future of mobile and transmedia digital entertainment," said Glu CEO Niccolo de Masi in a statement.
"We look forward to developing compelling original content which will be published across different media. Properties will begin as novels and games on smartphones and tablets, with potential expansions for the most successful creations into television and film," he continued.
In 2006, Frey was spotlighted in
an article by The Smoking Gun, which showed that many of the details in his 2003 memoirs A Million Little Pieces were fabricated, to such an extent that the book's publishers altered future editions to include a publisher's note and an author's note explaining the circumstances.
The author was the subject of further controversy when a
2010 New York Magazine article accused Frey of issuing "brutal" contracts to writing students in order to generate books in his Full Fathom Five line. Allegedly, these contracts pay very little and allow Frey to remove an author from his or her work and publish material without proper credit.
