Jimmy Vines

Kevin Spacey's production banner Trigger Street has paid high-five against mid-six figures for the screen rights to "Ninth Life" a comic crime caper by Gotham-based lit agent Jimmy Vines, who is making his first foray as a novelist under the pseudonym Jay Colvin.

Spacey will produce the pic with his Trigger Street partner Bernie Morris. Vines, who was repped by William Morris Agency's Bill Contardi in the deal, is currently revising the novel and adapting the screenplay.

"Ninth Life" is described as "After Hours" by way of Elmore Leonard. It tells of a hapless single father living in Gotham's lower East side who tries a benign holdup of his neighborhood bodega. Things go wrong and he and has anarchist punk rock best friend end up hijacking a taxi cab full of money and taking it to Atlantic City.

A six-year vet of the Virginia Barber Agency, Jimmy Vines founded The Vines Agency four years ago. While a first-time novelist, he has had several short stories appear in various mystery magazines.