BOOKIT

The deal

Dilshad Vadsaria (Rebecca on ABC Family’s “Greek”) options Sarah Mlynowski’s “Fishbowl,” the hilarious yet poignant tale of three post-college roommates grappling with mice, men and other melodramas in a small apartment.

The players

Vadsaria to produce and appear in a feature film; Mlynowski represented by Laura Dail Literary Agency in New York and on film rights by the Lisa Callamaro Literary Agency. The book is published by Red Dress Ink.

The back story

When Callamaro sold the film rights to the novel “Legally Blonde,” she had a perfect pitch (“Private Benjamin goes to Harvard”) and a recognizable genre (high-concept comedy) to seal the deal. Neither of these applied to Mlynowski’s tales of angst among twentysomething women. But they didn’t have to.

“If a property isn’t going to sell as a genre, it can sell based on a producer’s passion, and that’s exactly what happened here,” the agent said. “I didn’t have to work too hard because the producer sought me out in the first place.”

Passion is just one of the words Vadsaria uses to describe her infatuation with “Fishbowl.” She read the book in 2002, long before she was cast on “Greek” -- a comedy about sororities and fraternities -- and it stuck in her mind. The novel “connected with me because I’ve been where these girls have been,” the 23-year-old actress said. “It’s a time of life that doesn’t get examined much in film or in TV. You’re finally on your own, and yet no one has prepared you for the real world. It can be funny but also depressing. It’s perfect for a feature film.”

For her part, Mlynowski was passionate because she felt an instant rapport with Vadsaria. The two initially spoke for hours on the phone and still e-mail each other regularly.

“When I first wrote ‘Fishbowl,’ I felt nobody was doing anything with twentysomething anxiety,” she said. “You know -- why am I not married, why do I live with a sloppy roommate who eats all my Chinese food, and why did a mouse just run across the room?”

The book opens up a new world to readers -- and, perhaps, a demographic for filmmakers, she added.

“I still feel those years. . . . It was a moment when you ate mac and cheese every night. But you were on your own. For the first time.”

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josh.getlin@latimes.com