AI Questions Spoil Book & Movie Heat On Unpublished Debut Novel ‘Call Me, I’ll Hide The Body’ – The Dish
Dismiss News Banner
Breaking News
Mike Fleming Jr
Editor-At-Large
#### More Stories By Mike
- Netflix Plans Epic Survival Story Of Ernest Shackleton In Movie From ‘Adolescence’ Director Phil Barantini & ‘The Revenant’ Scribe Mark L. Smith
- AI Questions Spoil Book & Movie Heat On Unpublished Debut Novel ‘Call Me, I’ll Hide The Body’ – The Dish
- Atari Makes Universal Movie Deal For 10 Iconic Game Properties; First Up Is Original Script By Matt Reilly & Carl Hampe, With Entertainment 360 Producing
- ### Samara Weaving Lands Emma Frost Role In Disney/Marvel’s Reboot Pic
- ### Savannah Guthrie: “Someone Knows Something”
- ### Dermot Mulroney To Leave NBC Drama ‘Chicago Fire’ Early In Season 15
- ### Jeanine Pirro Will Drop Reflecting Pool Vandalism Charges
- Anonymous on July 31, 2026 6:53 am People need to understand that if you are using a search engine, you are now using AI. Depending on how strict the definition is of “AI use”. Everyone is now doing at least that. There is also a distinction between generating novel prose, and tasking an AI with finding your typos. Moreover, many of the AI detectors use AI. That means the detection is as flawed as some of the LLM – generated text. I think the publisher stands to be sued, if they’re not extremely careful. Reply Reply to
- anonymous on July 31, 2026 3:15 am Am I the only one who immediately thought that plot sounds like it was heavily inspired by Breaking Bad? Reply Reply to anonymous
- Anonymous on July 30, 2026 3:55 pm Of course it is copyrightable, and the publisher can happily sue anyone who steals it, and no one ever would anyway. People who know the least about AI are the ones who whine the loudest. Reply Reply to
- Anonymous on July 30, 2026 2:53 pm Here’s the simple truth: if you can’t write without the assistance of ai, even for grammar and punctuation, then I’m sorry, you can’t write. Writing is a craft. And everyone making excuses for not having a handle on even a simple declarative sentence can take several seats. We’re dumbing down the culture by allowing this slop to slide. Check the reading skills of our youth. Abysmal. Adults too. Reply Reply to
- Amol M on July 30, 2026 1:39 pm
July 30, 2026 10:03am
Getty Images
EXCLUSIVE: That screeching sound you heard Wednesday from international publishers and film rights buyers was an abrupt application of the brakes after a fevered pursuit of the unpublished debut novel Call Me, I’ll Hide the Body.
The novel by \[for a complicated set of reasons I have removed the author’s name\] sold to Minotaur/Macmillan Publishers for what sources said was a $2.4 million deal for the novel and a follow-up. What has imperiled this novel from following in the footsteps of publishing phenomena from The Horse Whisperer to 50 Shades of Grey and The Hunger Games?
Related Stories
Guillermo Del Toro Assures “No Godd\*mn AI” Used In ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ 3D Re-Release — Comic-Con
Christopher Nolan Compares AI To A “Glass Trojan Horse”: “Everybody Knows The Greeks Are Inside”
It comes down to the infiltration of AI in the publishing and movie/TV industries.
Watch on Deadline
Basically, questions were raised over whether the author used AI as a tool in the writing of the book. The problem: publishers and movie companies may not be able to register copyright and come away with a clear title chain if there are certain AI elements in the mix. That’s because AI-aided copy is an amalgamation of many other copyrighted works.
From what I’m hearing, this will be an important teaching moment for writers with aspirations to become serious bankable authors. The lesson: stay the hell away from AI.
I’m told it’s routine for publishers and their reps to ask authors if they used AI, and all parties proceeded in good faith after getting assurances from the author that he did not. That was called into question after the Call Me rights began selling around the world, and movie/TV interest heated up. There are apparently fingerprints, or something that raised the flags of AI censors.
On Thursday, Sandy Hodgman, an independent agent from Hodgman Literary who sells foreign rights for Europa Content, pulled back its submission of the novel to eager international publishers. Here is the email, which Deadline secured:
\[The author\] produced an incredible manuscript that dazzled us and the top publishing professionals around the world. Unfortunately, we are no longer able to authenticate how the manuscript fully evolved from origin to completion. During the submission process we vetted the manuscript with \[the author\] for AI and felt trusting in his reassurance that it was written without utilizing AI as a resource in the writing or editorial process. We can no longer substantiate that, and we are withdrawing the book.
This raises so many questions about authorship and what AI means for this industry but those are questions for another day. We regret that our enthusiasm led to this outcome and we apologize to our publishing partners.
UTA and Europa Content had been selling the rights — I’ve learned both are no long involved — and their efforts took off when a huge U.S. offer deal was set in place. After the extraordinary email, everything is up in the air. It might be difficult to get the momentum back, even if proper assurances are in place that the author did all the work himself, with no help from AI. Conceivably, a rights buyer would have no more protection than anyone publishing a work in the public domain. It’s one thing to dust off a classic like The Odyssey, still another when the work is fresh and the rights messy and tangled.
The novel sounds awesomely promising. The protagonist, Femi Johnson, sounds a bit like The Wolf, the “Cleaner” character played in Pulp Fiction by Harvey Keitel. Here, the protagonist trades his “cleaner” origins in Lagos, Nigeria, to pursue a chemistry PhD in Houston. His ability to make bodies disappear brings him opportunities and peril as circumstances lead to employment by a cartel operator.
Stay tuned. This just happened Wednesday, so when there is something to update, we will add any comments.
Read More About:
Subscribe to Deadline
Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.
36 Comments
#### Cancel reply
Submit a comment
Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong.
Comment
Name
Website
Δ
* Dorothy Z on July 31, 2026 2:01 pm This technology is nothing more than a regurgitation of past work. Reading and writing scores have plummeted with younger generations, and even adults struggle to read for pleasure. This “author” clearly got caught using ai to complete his manuscript, regardless of what he says in interviews. We’re living in a time with non stop inundation of “fabulously wealthy” folks celebrating their “best lives,” and if human nature is any prediction, people will continue to take shortcuts to reach the financial promise land, but I also believe true artistry and storytelling will rise to the top. And anyone advocating for this detrimental tech obviously lacks God given talent. You can’t will brilliance into existence, and a chatbot certainly won’t get you there. Reply Reply to Dorothy Z * Danny on July 31, 2026 8:17 am AI for research is completely different than using AI to write your book or script. As you say, everyone uses a search engine, but they don’t lose a 2.4 million dollar deal because of it. Reply Reply to Danny
* Anonymous on July 31, 2026 8:46 am Not at all. Reply Reply to
* Melody Jett Werner on July 31, 2026 7:48 am okay then genius, explain to the class why any artist needs to use technology that is being proliferated in order to depress wages and hire less people? why does a serious artist need to use engines that scrape their data from people who did not authorize that? why can’t AI companies, you know, go through the normal processes over the past few centuries of licensing works? you should have no problems answering any of these questions, as a self-implied “non-whiner”. Reply Reply to Melody Jett Werner * Anonymous on July 30, 2026 7:07 pm Nope, AI work cannot be copyright protected any more than gorrilla work. There have been court cases. Reply Reply to * Anonymous on July 30, 2026 6:06 pm It’s not. Courts have repeatedly found that AI works areas not copyrightable Reply Reply to
* Steve on July 30, 2026 10:56 pm Stuff produced SOLELY by AI isn’t copyrightable. Stuff produced with AI plus a decent amount of human involvement is, and has already been approved for copyright registrations. Reply Reply to Steve
* SueinNM on July 31, 2026 9:34 am This. As a novelist, I am truly concerned about the use of AI to replace human creativity and knowledge. Reply Reply to SueinNM
* Anonymous on July 30, 2026 6:32 pm Bro, did you write this comment with AI? Can you people do anything on your own? Reply Reply to Anonymous * Anonymous on July 30, 2026 2:50 pm I am confused. I am a published author and I don’t use AI at all… Do I somehow need to prove that now? How? Reply Reply to
* Melody Jett Werner on July 31, 2026 7:43 am it’s not actually that hard to prove. save your notes and drafts on whatever you use, just in case. but if you write at a high level with a very unique style, you probably won’t get any such accusations regardless. Reply Reply to Melody Jett Werner * Anonymous on July 30, 2026 6:51 pm Write by hand and have a paper trail of yourself typing up the drafts, on a typewriter or computer. Reply Reply to Anonymous