Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan will adapt Andrew Pyper’s novel “The Demonologist” for Universal Pictures, the studio told TheWrap on Wednesday.
Robert Zemeckis, Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey will produce for ImageMovers.Universal Vice President of Production Maradith Frenkel will oversee the project.
Due to be published by Simon & Schuster in March 2013, “The Demonologist” revolves around a Columbia University professor of demonic literature. When his daughter falls under the spell of the underworld, he has to overcome his skepticism of the occult and use his expertise in the signs and symbols of Milton’s “Paradise Lost” in order to rescue his offspring.
Schenkkan won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1992 for his play, "The Kentucky Cycle."
Pyper’s previous novels include “Lost Girls” and “The Guardians.” Schenkkan is represented by WME and manager Dawn Saltzman of Mosaic.
