Getty Images / Flatiron Books
Columbia Pictures is moving forward on an adaptation of Melissa Albert’s YA fantasy novel THE HAZEL WOOD with Ashleigh Powell writing the script, following her stint writing Disney’s upcoming The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, the Tracking Board confirms.
The film will be produced by Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher (Divergent) through the Red Wagon banner with Red Wagon’s VP Lucas Wiesendanger overseeing.
Published by Flatiron Books in the U.S., Albert’s novel has been a New York Times Young Adult bestseller for seven weeks, following teenager Alice, who is troubled by bad luck while living on the road with her mother. Her mother won’t let Alice meet her grandmother, who has written a book of dark fairy tales called Tales from the Hinterland, but when Alice’s mother is kidnapped, the teen discovers there’s more truth to her grandmother’s fairy tales.
Sony Pictures bought the rights to the book when it was presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair with Columbia Pictures SVP of Production Lauren Abrahams overseeing for the studio.
Represented by the Gersh Agency, Good Fear and Eric Feig, Powell’s first produced screenplay was for Nutcracker and the Four Realms, which will be released by Walt Disney Pictures on Nov. 2. She has since written a number of screenplays in various stages of production, including adapting Charlie N. Holmberg’s The Paper Magician also for Disney, the thriller spec Egg, and Somacell, a high-tech prison movie for Warner Bros, that will be directed by Ariel Vromen (The Iceman).
Powell’s attachment was first reported by the Wrap.
Edward Douglas | East Coast Editor
