James Frey Collaborating on a Novel for Young Adults, First in a Series
By MOTOKO RICH, New York Times, June 26, 2009

James Frey, the author of “A Million Little Pieces” and “Bright Shiny Morning,” is working with another writer and anonymously shopping around a young-adult novel called “I Am Number Four.”

James Frey

A source familiar with the project said that Mr. Frey, who was famously caught embellishing details in “A Million Little Pieces,” his memoir of drug addiction and recovery, came up with the idea of what is proposed as a six-book series. He and the other writer, whose name has not been disclosed, are working together on the text of the books.
In addition, DreamWorks Pictures has bought film rights to the series, with no less than Michael Bay, the director of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” signed on to produce and possibly direct the first installment, according to a DreamWorks spokesman. “Transformers” broke a box office record on its opening day Wednesday.
A manuscript of the first book in the series has been circulating among editors at several large New York publishing houses. In a cover letter, Eric Simonoff, a literary agent at William Morris Endeavor, says the series is a collaboration between an unnamed New York Times best-selling author and a young up-and-coming writer.

Full story at NYT.