Local Author Sells FIlm Rights to Book

Local author Mardi Jo Link may someday see her life on the big screen. Link is set to sign a film option for her memoir Bootstrapper with actress Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener, The Bourne Legacy) and director Laurie Collyer (Sherrybaby, Sunlight Jr).

The option, which Link describes as "just a dream" until the movie is actually made, is for 18 months during which time the producers look for financing. If that doesn't happen, Link tells The Ticker, the option can be renewed or they can drop it and it can be sold again to someone else.

"Of course I do hope they get the financing," says Link. "It would be both strange and satisfying, I think, to see my story on screen."

Bootstrapper tells the story of Link's life as she struggles to hang on to her century-old farmhouse in northern Michigan while going through a divorce and raising three young boys on her own.

It was when Collyer was in Traverse City last summer for the TC Film Fest (presenting Sunlight Jr.) that she first discovered Bootstrapper. Link says Collyer popped into Horizon Books to get "a fun read while I was in Michigan" and walked out with Link's memoir.

Collyer and Weisz are friends and have been wanting to work together for a while, Link says, so she pursued the movie rights to the film. Collyer will be writing the screenplay.

First released in hardcover in June 2013, Bootstrapper comes out in paperback this Tuesday, Apr. 8, and is expected to make a run for the New York Times' bestseller list.