Producer eyes success ... "Without Really Trying"

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Producer Grant Turck has optioned film rights to the late Shepherd Mead's satirical guidebook "How to Succeed With Women Without Really Trying: The Dastard's Guide to the Birds and Bees."

Published in 1957 by Ballantine Books, "Women" apes the structure and tone of Mead's popular 1952 work "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying: The Dastard's Guide to Fame and Fortune," which was adapted into a hit Broadway show and a film.

The "Women" primer satirizes 1950s male-female relations under the guise of a self-help book, with chapters that include "How to Be Irresistible in Short Pants," "How to Select the First Wife" and "How to Handle Women in Business."

"Mead's manual is a catchy and clever satire full of subversive and wacky advice that often has a wickedly funny ring of truth about it," Turck said. "In terms of tone, we're developing the film to have the feel of a modern Billy Wilder romantic comedy."

Screenwriters Dax Shelby and Robert Stevens are in talks to write the adaptation. The duo's screenplay "A Family Affair" is in development at New Line, with Sarah Jessica Parker attached to star.

Turck is also developing a feature adaptation of John Grisham's thriller "The Partner" and a miniseries adaptation of Gary Jennings' novel "Aztec."

Mead, whose other books included "How To Live Like A Lord Without Really Trying" and "How To Get Rich In TV Without Really Trying," died in 1994, aged 80.