People don’t get out of bed without tweeting about it. That was a germinating idea for me in terms of Cordova.Īlso, the idea of someone hidden, our world is so overexposed right now. I’d done a lot of research on filmmakers and the idea of an auteur and patriarch who invites people to his estate to make a film, like Kubrick shot his films on a set that had been built on his estate so he didn’t have to leave. Pessl: It was definitely Cordova and the idea of this underground, hidden figure. Hometown: Grew up in Asheville, North Carolina lives in New York City.įor fans of: Psychological thrillers like Gillian Flynn’s critically acclaimed “Gone Girl,” and “The Secret History” by Donna Tartt.ĬNN: What was the spark behind this book? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest stories and tell us what’s influencing your life.

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Pessl said she wanted to give readers another way to interact with the story, hoping her fans obsess over “Night Film” just as she did writing it. She also wrote and directed several short films being featured over the next few weeks on YouTube that offer clues into the book’s mystery, including snippets and trailers from Cordova’s films. Pessl weaves into the narrative excerpts from magazine articles, newspaper headlines, police reports, crime scene photos and screen shots of online message boards. When Cordova’s daughter turns up dead in an apparent suicide, McGrath sees an opportunity to exact revenge against the man he blames for his downfall. Investigative journalist Scott McGrath tried to expose Cordova years ago and it backfired, costing him his job, marriage and reputation. His movies are so frightening no theater will show them his cult of fans meet in abandoned buildings and underground tunnels for secret screenings.

Pessl’s fictional mash-up of Stanley Kubrick, Roman Polanski and David Lynch hasn’t been seen in public for 30 years. Movie rights are already spoken for by Chernin Entertainment, the studio behind “Oblivion” and “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” and critics are raving about Pessl’s multimedia storytelling approach, which takes readers beyond the novel’s pages to explore the story of a mysterious director and the washed-up reporter out to expose him. Seven years later, “Night Film” is hitting bookstores this week amid greater expectations and even more hype.

But the book lived up to expectations, selling some 200,000 copies and landing on The New York Times’ list of Best Books of 2006.

Pessl burst onto the scene in 2006 with “Special Topics in Calamity Physics.” She received a six-figure advance, almost unheard of for a first-time author, a ton of hype and even some snarky backlash over her photogenic looks. Who is Stanislas Cordova? That’s the burning question at the heart of “Night Film,” the anticipated follow-up to best-selling author Marisha Pessl’s 2006 literary debut.

Nightfilm book