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BOOKS He's an inventor, Francophile, pacifist, percussionist, jeweler, actor, detective, vegan, coin and coral collector, and romantic. He's also 9, and his dad died on 9/11. He's Oskar, the hero of the as-yet-untitled new novel (due next spring) by Jonathan Safran Foer, whose 2002 debut Everything Is Illuminated was a breakout hit. Book-friendly producer Scott Rudin (The Hours) has already snapped up the movie rights. Foer was taken aback. ''The book is stylistically rather avant-garde,'' he says, ''which makes the movie interest so surprising.'' Filming for Liev Schreiber's version of Illuminated (in which ''Jonathan Safran Foer'' is the main character) starts June 14. ''Yes,'' Foer says, ''Elijah Wood is playing me.''... Five-hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred years. We've been waiting that long for a film version of the forever-running Broadway musical Rent. Warner Bros. just picked up the rights for Harry Potter wiz Chris Columbus to write and direct.

TELEVISION War is hell. And great drama. TV guy Steven Bochco -- he did NYPD Blue and, more importantly, Doogie Howser, M.D. -- has a script-development deal at FX for an untitled series about modern soldiers.... The Nanny Diaries will be a nanny series. Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein is overseeing a projected TV version of the 2002 Nicola Kraus -- Emma McLaughlin best-seller his own self. Miramax is working on a movie version, too.... Josh Schwartz -- the wunderkind who created The O.C. is developing a ''companion series'' to his Fox smash slated for early next year. The O.C.: Miami? The O.C.: Special Victims Unit?


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Posted May 21, 2004 | Published in issue #766 May 21, 2004 | Order Article Reprints