Vadim Perelman has signed on to adapt and direct Lois Lowry's Newbery Award-winning novel "The Giver" for 20th Century Fox and Walden Media.

The story centers on Jonas, a 12-year-old boy living in an idyllic future society where all memory of human history has been erased. His life is thrown into turmoil when he is designated to inherit the role of the Giver -- the sole keeper of the vast range of human emotions. Perelman will work from an earlier draft penned by Todd Alcott.

Jeff Bridges and Neil Koenigsberg of AsIs Prods. and Orly Wiseman and Nikki Silver of On Screen Entertainment are producing.

The film will be distributed by 20th Century Fox, which teamed with Walden Media on last year's "Because of Winn-Dixie."

Fox's Debbie Liebling is shepherding for the studio, while Alex Schwartz and Evan Turner are overseeing for Walden.

Schwartz called the book "a jewel in the canon" of children's literature. "We are thrilled to have a director on the caliber of Vadim Perelman on board to bring Lois Lowry's beloved story to the big screen," she said.

Walden Media, a subsidiary of the Anschutz Film Group, produced "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe," which earned an Academy Award for best makeup and was one of the highest-grossing films of last year. Upcoming releases include "Hoot" and "How to Eat Fried Worms" with New Line Cinema and "Charlotte's Web" with Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies.

Perelman, who made his directorial debut with the critically acclaimed adaptation of Andre Dubus III's "House of Sand and Fog," is in preproduction on "Truce" for Warner Independent Pictures and Participant Prods. He is repped by CAA and the Firm.