Deadline reports that Paramount and Indian Paintbrush are the latest to join the foreign book craze, having pointed resources toward Syndrome E — a soon-to-be-translated, first-in-a-trilogy French novel from Franck Thilliez. Said to be a mix of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Se7en, Syndrome E centers on Lucie Hennebelle, a detective who investigates “an extremely rare and spectacularly violent film from the 1950s,” after his friend watches the film and develops blindness.

Five men have been left dead on account of its raw power, and Hennebelle starts working with a fellow detective to uncover the secret behind “what has to be the most disturbing and powerful film ever made,” created by someone who could be “the personification of evil and the origins of violence.”

Dragon Tattoo‘s screenwriter, Steve Zaillian, will produce through Film Rites (with Garret Basch), along with Steven Rales and Mark Roybal.

Then, THR informs us that Ernest Lupinacci has successfully pitched The Royal Honour Society to Sony. An actioner with a literary bent, the film will put H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Robert Louis Stevenson, and some other 19th-century scribes into the middle of a perilous adventure not unlike their own creations.

My initial reaction (as I suspect will be the case for many) was “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen rip-off,” though Honour Society is described as the “reverse” version — however that may work. Palak Patel & Joe Roth (Snow White and the Huntsman, Alice in Wonderland) are producing.

Does the early summary of Syndrome E grab your attention? How about The Royal Honour Society?