EXCLUSIVE: Actor and former Navy SEAL Remi Adeleke has signed a three-book deal with HarperCollins imprint William Morrow for a series of thrillers.
Adeleke, whose credits include Michael Bay movies 6 Underground and Transformers: The Last Knight, as well as the director’s upcoming movie Ambulance, is currently filming Lionsgate action movie The Plane with Gerard Butler. Upcoming he also has Amazon’s Navy SEAL series Terminal List with Chris Pratt and he was a script consultant on upcoming Apple+ TV series, Invasion.
The Black Box series, which will be informed by Adeleke’s experiences in Human Intelligence Gathering, will introduce Nigerian-born Kali Kent and the Black Box special ops program, a top-secret program buried within the CIA. Kent, the son of a Nigerian tribal chief, is considered a chameleon agent within Black Box, whose agents are deployed to neutralize America’s most dangerous enemies.
David Highfill, VP, Executive Editor of William Morrow acquired world English rights in a pre-empt from John Talbot at the Talbot Fortune Agency.
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We hear on the grapevine that the three-book deal was in the seven-figure range. The books started out as a screenplay that Remi wrote on spec.
“I knew after reading the first scene that Remi’s manuscript was one that I had to publish. It has the hallmarks of a thriller debut that will energize everyone who touches it. It has the action, intrigue and high stakes we all love, but more importantly, it has real heart. I can’t wait to help bring it to readers everywhere,” said Highfill.
“I’m so grateful to David Highfill and the Morrow team for partnering with me to bring Kali Browder Kent’s thrilling story to readers around the world. As a kid, I was obsessed with the world of espionage and closely followed characters such as James Bond, Ethan Hunt and – as I grew older – Jason Bourne,” commented Adeleke.
“These characters and many others played a part in my decision to go into special operations and eventually HUMINT (Human Intelligence) operations. Now I get to share a character I created, who also looks like me, comes from the same place I came from and who has evolved from the streets of the Bronx into an intelligent, multifaceted changemaker. Working with David Highfill makes telling this story as good as it gets.”
As a writer and author, Adeleke penned the adapted teleplay for Slave Stealers for Stowaway Productions, which highlights abolitionist Harriet Jacobs. He also wrote memoir Transformed: A Navy SEAL’s Unlikely Journey from the Throne of Africa, to the Streets of the Bronx, to Defying all Odds. He is currently directing short film The Unexpected.
Adeleke is represented by The Talbot Fortune Agency, APA and Loeb & Loeb.