MrBeast Starts a New Chapter as a James Patterson Co-Author

ABLUpdated 6 days Ago1 Mins read3

Photo-Illustration: Vulture. Photos: Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Prime Video, Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

A project that pits people against each other as they undergo a series of potentially dangerous challenges? Likely place for MrBeast to be. Per Deadline, the YouTuber, real name Jimmy Donaldson, has co-written a thriller novel with prolific author James Patterson. The yet-to-be-titled book is being described as Squid Game-esque, which seems fitting given its logline: “Players fight to survive deadly tests held in dangerous locations around the world, as they battle to become ‘The One.’” A bidding war with offers in the eight-figure range has already reportedly broken out over the publishing rights, and there’s also said to be high interest in film and TV adaptation rights. Basically, it seems almost guaranteed that these two rich dudes are about to get even richer.

Now, Patterson is no stranger to working with co-authors — it’s famously how he’s been able to pump out hundreds of books and become one of the wealthiest authors in the world. But the news that his latest collaborator would be a viral star who has never written a novel before seemed to surprise people, and Deadline made a point to describe the duo as an “unlikely pairing.” Given the upcoming book’s description, though, maybe it actually makes sense that Patterson would want to pick this guy’s brain? In addition to being known for YouTube videos that make people compete to be the last one standing, Donaldson previously had to deny allegations that Beast Games, his Prime Video reality competition show that landed several people in the hospital, had subjected people to hostile working conditions. And hey, if Donaldson needs to write any scenes where players are faced with unsavory food, he can always take inspiration from some of the complaints that were tweeted at him during his moldy-meal controversy.