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Clinton Co-Author: Nearly a Dozen Hollywood Companies Bidding for Film Rights to Thriller Novel

Former President Bill Clinton / Getty

Author James Patterson said Friday that nearly a dozen Hollywood companies were bidding for the film rights to a thriller novel he is co-writing with former President Bill Clinton called The President Is Missing.

"We were out in Hollywood last week, and we had like 11 companies bidding for the film rights and whatever, which was a lot of fun to be there with President Clinton," Patterson said on CNBC's "Squawk Box."

The Hollywood Reporter reported last month that Clinton and Patterson were courting such Hollywood titans as Steven Spielberg and George Clooney to adapt the book into a movie.

The Washington Free Beacon reported on the book in May:

Former President Bill Clinton and author James Patterson are collaborating on a thriller novel set to be published in June 2018 titled The President Is Missing.

The novel will be Bill Clinton's first fiction book, which will be jointly published by the president's longtime publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, and Patterson's longtime publisher, Little, Brown and Co., the Associated Press reported Monday.

Knopf and Little, Brown released a statement in May calling the book, "a unique amalgam of intrigue, suspense, and behind-the-scenes global drama from the highest corridors of power. It will be informed by details that only a president can know."

Patterson said he hoped it would be the best novel ever about a president because of Clinton's input.

"We have a president who is writing and collaborating and forcing me to absolutely get it right," Patterson said.

Clinton has published three books since leaving office in 2001, but this is his first fiction work. Patterson is a prolific author of both fiction and non-fiction who has seen his works adapted into movies and television shows.