Oprah biopic and Jack Black’s 'Guinea Pig'

Deals for the adaptation of books for the small screen were announced Monday, indicating that novels, commonly turned into films, are not the only stories being optioned for the screen. An Oprah Winfrey biopic is one of the upcoming projects which could be a television mini-series.

The bestselling unauthorized tell-all biography, Oprah: A Biography, written by Kitty Kelley about the television talk show host and media phenomenon, will be made into a two- to four-hour long made-for-television film, reported E! news.

The film is planned for airing on television in September 2011, when the daytime television star will end her 25-year long show and is produced by Larry A. Thompson who did biopics about Lucy Ball and Sony and Cher. An unknown actress is likely to portray Oprah.

Another non-fiction book being adapted for television is The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment by humorist A.J. Jacobs, which covers the author's month-long immersion experiences, such as outsourcing his life to a company in India and living vicariously as a woman.

Actor Jack Black's Electric Dynamite Productions and Reveille ( The Office, The Biggest Loser) plan to produce the best-seller as a half-hour comedy series, according to Deadline Hollywood.

RC