Joe Roth to Produce Universal's 'Daughter of Smoke & Bone'

Joe Roth, the producer behind the $1 billion-grossing Alice in Wonderland, has come aboard to produce Universal’s adaptation of Laini Taylor’s young-adult fantasy novel Daughter of Smoke & Bone. Roth Films president Palak Patel will exec produce.

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Universal picked up the rights to the book trilogy in December 2011, beating out four other companies in acquiring the hot YA franchise.

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The first installment of the trilogy, published in September 2011 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, tells the tale of a 17-year-old art student whose father occasionally sends her on errands around the world collecting human teeth for a mysterious purpose. The young woman gradually becomes aware that she is part of an ancient struggle between devils and angels and finds herself in a forbidden romance with a warrior angel.

The book was highly acclaimed when it was released, becoming Amazon’s No. 1 Teen Book of 2011, a Publishers Weekly Best Books 2011, a Huffington Post Top 10 YA Book of 2011 and a New York Times Notable Children's Books of 2011. 

The sequel, Days of Blood and Starlight, published in November, is a New York Times best-seller and was named a best book of 2012 by Amazon and Publishers Weekly.

Roth is in the middle of a slate of tentpoles. He produced Snow White and the Huntsman, starring Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth, for Universal; has Oz: The Great and Powerful awaiting release in the spring; and is in production on Maleficent, starring Angelina Jolie.