Screen Gems Nabs Big Screen Rights for Elizabeth Richards' YA Series 'Black City'

Amelia Vincent

Screen Gems has preemptively struck a deal to bring Elizabeth Richards' upcoming young adult fantasy series Black City to the big screen.

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The first book in the series, also titled Black City, will be released Nov. 13 by Putnam Juvenile, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group.

Screen Gems says it moved quickly to complete the rights deal for the series based on the high level of anticipation for the property in the online community and other young adult circles. Screen Gems is currently searching for a screenwriter to adapt the material.

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Black City is set in a city where humans and Darklings are separated by a high wall, and tensions between the two races still simmer after a terrible war. The story centers on 16-year-olds Ash Fisher, a half-blood Darkling, and Natalie Buchanan, a human and the daughter of the emissary, who meet and do the unthinkable -- they fall in love.

Black City marks the author’s debut novel. Richards is a journalist who spent her early career reviewing video games for a living before becoming a travel writer and editor, specializing in cruise holidays, despite suffering from terrible sea sickness. In her spare time, she ran a lifestyle website aimed at teenage girls, where she became familiar with the demographic.

The author and title were repped by Ayesha Pande Literary and CAA.