Commuter who wrote fantasy novel on his phone on verge of multi-million dollar movie deal

A commuter who typed out his first novel on his mobile phone on the New York subway has signed a lucrative deal to make a multi-million dollar film trilogy that producers say will be the "next Lord of the Rings".

Peter Brett wrote his fantasy novel The Painted Man while on the 'F' train from his home in Brooklyn to Times Square, busily pressing away on the keys of his HP Ipaq 6515, a phone similar to a BlackBerry, while other passengers dozed or read the newspaper.

After it became a success he then wrote half of a sequel The Desert Spear in the same manner before quitting his job in medical publishing to write full time in a more conventional fashion.

His planned trilogy has been picked up by the British team behind the Resident Evil science fiction movie franchise who want to release the first film in 2012.

Jeremy Bolt, the British producer of Resident Evil, said the first film would be made in 3D with a budget of up to $100 million (£60 million) and he was stunned to discover that the book had been typed on a phone.

"I was amazed that he could do that," Mr Bolt told the New York Daily News.

"When I met him I thought he must have extremely muscular thumbs.

"The only thing I can imagine was that there were a lot of people with tattoos on the subway and that inspired him. It's epic fantasy."

The film will be directed by Paul WS Anderson, the British director behind Resident Evil, released in 2002, which made $150 million (£100 million) at the worldwide box office.

The Painted Man was first published in Britain in 2008 and then under the title The Warded Man in the United States the following year.

It has sold 100,000 copies in 17 countries. The Desert Spear was released this month and is on best-seller lists.

via Commuter who wrote fantasy novel on his phone on verge of multi-million dollar movie deal - Telegraph.