The murky and dangerous exploits of a one-legged, impoverished soldier turned private investigator are unlikely to entice millions of children into the multiplex or, come to that, to sire a popular and lucrative studio tour. They may, however, provide JK Rowling with her next box office smash.

A fortnight after the Harry Potter author was inadvertently unmasked as the pseudonymous author of the thriller The Cuckoo's Calling, the novel has attracted the interest of a number of Hollywood studios keen to acquire the rights.

According to the online magazine Deadline, Warner Bros – which released the multimillion-dollar Potter films – is leading the pack thanks to its established relationship with Rowling.

Several studios are understood to be bidding, but a spokesman for Rowling declined to discuss the matter, saying only: "I'm afraid that we're not commenting on the film rights situation for The Cuckoo's Calling."

After the revelation, the book, which Rowling wrote under the name Robert Galbraith, shot to No 1 in the UK hardback fiction charts last week, selling 17,662 copies in seven days.

Even before the leak it had received two offers from television production companies.

Rowling's writing as Galbraith has been compared to that of Lee Child, whose novel One Shot was recently made into a Hollywood film, Jack Reacher, starring Tom Cruise and Rosamund Pike.

The Cuckoo's Calling follows the memorably named private investigator Cormoran Strike as he investigates the death of a supermodel. Soon, according to the blurb, "the case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man."

Although the publishers had originally billed the novel as a work based on Galbraith's "own experiences and those of his military colleagues", they were forced to come clean after it emerged that it had been written by Rowling.

Galbraith's true identity was revealed after one of her lawyers told his wife's best friend who the unknown writer really was. She tweeted the news, which was picked up by the Sunday Times.

Once the secret was out, Rowling used Galbraith's official website to dispel rumours that the leak had been orchestrated to maximise sales.

"If sales were what mattered to me most, I would have written under my own name from the start, and with the greatest fanfare," she wrote.

The revelations have, however, had a dramatic effect. Rowling's publishers have reprinted 140,000 copies to meet demand; before Galbraith's cover was blown, The Cuckoo's Calling had sold just 1,500 copies.