BOOKIT

The deal

Michael Besman and Cameron Lamb, with Lila 9th Productions, option C.J. Box’s “Blue Heaven,” a fast-paced thriller set in a secretive (and real-life) Idaho community that is home to nearly 800 former members of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The players

Besman (“About Schmidt”) and Lamb (“Careless”) producing. Tony Gayton (“The Salton Sea”) writing the screenplay. Box is represented by the Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency and on film rights by Steve Fisher with the Agency for the Performing Arts. The book is published by St. Martin’s Minotaur.

The back story

Yes, it was a gripping read. But as Fisher began thinking about how to pitch the film rights for Box’s new book, he was initially stumped. This wasn’t a high-concept story that could be boiled down to one or two catchy sentences. It had a murder, two children running from a terror they didn’t understand and a foreboding sense of rural danger. Finally, the agent decided that the hook was the place itself -- a little-known swath of Idaho panhandle known as “Blue Heaven.”

“It’s a tough market for movies that aren’t extremely obvious or come from comic books,” Fisher said. “But this book opened up a real world that few know about.” Besman was sold when Fisher pitched him, because he instantly saw a smart adult thriller -- think “The Departed” or “Mystic River” -- jumping off the pages. He also saw great casting possibilities in the central character of a grizzled rancher who bristles as newcomers invade his isolated domain. “The pie-in-the-sky casting would be Clint Eastwood, but you could also see Gene Hackman, Ed Harris or Harrison Ford,” Besman said.

For Box, the option capped a whirlwind experience that began when he got the idea for “Blue Heaven” during a book reading in Tustin about two years ago. An LAPD member asked him if he knew about the unofficial retirement community in Idaho, and the author, who lives in Wyoming, visited it soon after. “I began thinking of a story,” he said. “Because if there are a lot of cops there, there are probably a few bad ones too.” As for the film option, Box wasn’t completely surprised: “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about this as a film early on. I could see it as I wrote it.”

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josh.getlin@latimes.com