Book deals run away with bride, Deep Throat tales

Once again, it pays to make news.

ReganMedia has bought the rights to runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks’ life story. And Deep Throat has deals for a book and a movie.

Tom Hanks’ production company has announced plans to make a movie about Mark Felt, the retired FBI agent recently identified as Watergate’s Deep Throat. Universal Pictures, which will co-produce the film, also purchased the Vanity Fair article that identified Felt as Deep Throat, along with his 1979 memoir, “The FBI Pyramid from the Inside.”

Financial details of Felt’s movie and book deal weren’t disclosed. But David Kuhn, a literary agent for the Felts, denied reports that the family could make $1 million from the deals.

The book – “A G-Man’s Life: The FBI, Being ‘Deep Throat’ and the Struggle for Honor in Washington” – is to be published next spring.

PublicAffairs publisher Peter Osnos says the book will include new material from about 200 pages of dictation and interviews that Felt’s son, Mark Felt Jr., did with his father in the years before his memory began to fade.

Details of Wilbanks’ deal – including finances and any potential book or movie – weren’t disclosed. ReganMedia acquired “all media rights.” The company includes book division ReganBooks, which has published best sellers tied to other high-profile personalities in the news, including Bill and Hillary Clinton and Jose Canseco.

Part of Wilbanks’ deal, according to news reports, is an exclusive interview with NBC’s Katie Couric set to air Tuesday on “Dateline,” with excerpts on “Today.”

But both ReganBooks and NBC denied Thursday that any money had changed hands to secure the interview, or that a movie deal could be in the making.