Photo: Knopf

Nico Walker is an Iraq War vet who wrote a debut novel, Cherry, which covers the war, the opioid epidemic, and a spree of bank robberies (we called it the “first great novel of the opioid epidemic”). Naturally, Hollywood has come calling for the rights to the book, but there’s one problem: Walker is currently serving 11 years for bank robbery in a federal prison in Kentucky, and he has a limited number of phone minutes. According to Deadline, several people, including big directors, are trying to get the rights to Cherry, which offers a fictionalized version of many of the events in Walker’s life. Like the novel’s hero, Walker was an army medic who developed an opioid addiction while deployed and turned to robbing banks when he returned home. Per Deadline, though the rights auction is heating up, Walker is out of his phone minutes and can’t discuss any offers until he can use the phone again on Sunday. At which point, even more people will have heard about this book, and will probably be willing to offer even better deals for it.