Cherie Priest's Novel 'Boneshaker' Headed for Big Screen

Cross Creek Pictures and Exclusive Media Group are teaming on a film adaptation of Cherie Priest's period zombie novel Boneshaker.

John Hilary Shepherd (Nurse Jackie) has been set to write the screenplay.

Priest's book, the first in a planned series, falls within the steampunk genre of science fiction, whereby a sci-fi or fantasy story is set during the Victorian era.

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Boneshaker -- published in 2009 by Tor Books and nominated for a 2010 Hugo Award for best novel -- is set in an alternate version of 1880s Seattle. The city has been walled in and a toxic gas has transformed many of of the remaining residents nto "Rotters," otherwise known as zombies. A young widow searching for her teenage son must deal with the Seattle underworld, airship pirates and heavily armed refugees.

The second novel in Priest's series, Dreadnought, was published in 2010, while the third, Ganymede, hit bookstores in late September. The fourth novel, Inexplicables, will hit bookstands next year.

Exclusive and Cross Creek have teamed on several high-profile projects, including on George Clooney's The Ides of March, the upcoming The Women in Black, which CBS Films will open on Feb. 3, and Ron Howard's Formula 1 film Rush.