Lionsgate has acquired the rights to young adult thriller novel “Down a Dark Hall” and set Rodrigo Cortés to direct the big-screen adaptation, the studio announced Wednesday.
The film is based on the 1974 young adult best-seller from author Lois Duncan, who also wrote “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” Screenwriter Michael Goldbach wrote the original adaptation, and Chris Sparling is now doing a rewrite.
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The story follows Kit Gordy, a new student at the exclusive Blackwood Boarding School. It is the opportunity of a lifetime, but Kit quickly realizes something strange is happening behind its walls as she confronts the darkly seductive powers of Blackwood’s headmistress and comes face to face with the supernatural powers that could make her great or destroy her.
“Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer and Meghan Hibbett will produce via their Fickle Fish Films along with Temple Hill Entertainment’s Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen, who also produced the “Twilight” films as well as recent YA hit “The Fault in Our Stars.”
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Cortes directed “Buried” starring Ryan Reynolds as well as “Red Lights” with Cillian Murphy, Elizabeth Olsen and Robert De Niro.
Erik Feig, co-president of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, Gillian Bohrer, Lionsgate’s EVP of production and development, and James Myers, creative executive at Lionsgate, are overseeing the project on behalf of the studio. Robert Melnik, Lionsgate’s executive vice president of business affairs, negotiated the deal on behalf of the studio.
Fickle Fish, Temple Hill, Sparling, Goldbach and Cortés are represented by UTA. The book was represented by Jody Hotchkiss & Associates.