Universal Pictures and Public Affairs have agreed to pay close to $1 million to buy the film and book rights to the life story of W. Mark Felt, the former FBI official who recently said he was Deep Throat. The contracts, which are expected to be announced Thursday, include an option to produce a feature film and the rights to a biography based on previously unpublished material written by Felt after his retirement from the FBI.Peter Osnos, the publisher and chief executive of PublicAffairs, an independent publishing company, said on Wednesday that the book would be published next spring, but declined to comment on the amount to be paid for the book rights.An option to produce a film based on the material and Felt’s memoir of his life in the FBI was bought by Universal for development by Playtone, the production company owned by the actor Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman. —NYT
