Lisa See’s ‘Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel’ is optioned.

March 27, 2008

The deal

) options Lisa See’s “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel,” an international bestseller about women who rebel against rigid restrictions in 19th century China and communicate in an ancient secret code.

The players

Sloan and Wendi Murdoch producing; See represented by the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency and on film rights by Michael Cendejas with the Lynn Pleshette Literary Agency. The book is published by Random House Trade Paperbacks.

The back story

When writers sell the film rights to their books, many worry about the original story and how it will fare on the screen. But See is more concerned about culture. “I don’t want to see actors stirring the rice as they cook it,” she said. The Los Angeles writer has reason to be concerned: Two of her previous books were optioned, and while neither became a film, she was irked by insensitivity in both treatments. (In one, she said, a script written with Mel Gibson in mind had a scene in which he beat up several Chinese men, then asked: “Got milk?”)

The author, who has written vividly about her own Chinese American lineage, insisted on the right to have cultural input into any adaptation of “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.” The women who optioned her 2005 novel are both Chinese American and they could not have been more sympathetic. The proposed movie is the debut project for Sloan, who is married to MGM Chairman and CEO Harry Sloan, and for Murdoch, whose husband, Rupert, runs News Corp. They were smitten with See’s absorbing story and quickly sensed its cinematic potential.

“Both of us being Chinese played a part in the optioning of the rights, and we felt a connection to it because of the Chinese history and culture that is the driving force of the story,” said Sloan in an e-mail. “Wendi and I are very close friends (and) she approached me about forming a company and being partners.”

See is also hopeful about an option deal for her latest novel, “Peony in Love,” which is being negotiated with Ridley Scott’s production company. “The timing for all this seems perfect, with all the interest in China,” she said. “But I remember the old saying about books into films: Many are chosen, few are made.”

josh.getlin@latimes.com