Just because the Writers Guild of America isn't striking anymore doesn't mean their scribbling members are actually back to unleashing scripts on Hollywood. Might Tinsletown be running dry on fresh script ideas? If you answered yes, then it'll lend credence to one theory that studio development units are turning to books, magazines, and "graphic novels" for ideas.

There's the $3 million book deal for trilogy The Flag of Orpheus, from Heroes writer Tim Kring, that's said to have studio execs salivating. And DreamWorks snapped up the Wired article "Deep Sea Cowboy," from Joshua Davis, about a company that races around the world to salvage sinking ships. Miramax grabbed the Wall Street Journal article "The Heart Has Its Reasons," by Kevin Helliker, about "an unlikely romance between 27-year old convicted murderer John Manard and Toby Young, a 48-year-old social worker who was a married mother of two when she smuggled Manard out of prison. They ran away together with $42,000 of her retirement money before they were caught in a cabin in Tennessee."

And Warner Bros. paid up for The Lost Girls, a HarperCollins "87-page proposal by Amanda Pressner, Jennifer Baggett and Holly Corbett, who gave up their media jobs and boyfriends to travel the world for a year, blogging every step of the way."

Which is basically Into The Wild, but with a broadband Internet card.