Geeta Anand hooks Harrison Ford

Geeta Anand, a reporter with last year's Pulitzer Prize winning team for The Wall Street Journal, has gone to Hollywood. The writer who is on a sabbatical from Journal till September has become one of the few writers whose
book is sold to Hollywood even before its publication.

Harrison Ford will star in a film based on her forthcoming book, For His Sick Kid, being produced for a reported $80 million by Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher, whose production credits include such films as the recent hit Along Came Polly, Erin Brockovich and Pulp Fiction. The trade publication Variety broke the news last week.

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The book is based on her story in The Wall Street Journal and focuses on a man who helps fund the research to cure a rare disease. When the research turns successful, he has another fight on his hands: he has to get the cure to his own children.

The film, which is in the developing stage, could start shooting in about six months. Ford would like to complete it before shooting on the fourth film in the Indiana Jones saga for Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.  

A health and science reporter at The Wall Street Journal, covering biotech companies, Anand has been with the newspaper since 1998. Last year, she shared a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism for a series about corporate America's scandals.
 
"I plan to continue to do what I'm doing now and greatly enjoy -- reporting and writing stories for the Journal," she is quoted as saying on South Asian Journalist Association (SAJA) website soon after the Pulitzer was announced.

"I don't think you should let awards change your life and I'm sure this one won't change mine. I'm in journalism
because I think it's important work and I enjoy my job very much."

She hadn't of course heard from Hollywood then.