Harriet has sounded off, and she says she had no clue this was in the works. No one from the Jordan estate was involved. Universal also might not have been involved.
Apparently, there's legal precedent in such cases to not count these last minute attempts as anything but a violation of the spirit of the agreement.
And Werthead from thewertzone says Harriet hinted that there was a lot of active interest in an adaptation. Hopefully, they'll be able to wrest the rights from REE.